A Blessing Of A Curse
by CrystariisFiction
Summary: In which two girls chant a strange spell from a book from the restricted section of the library (because that's what you do when you find strange lettering in a book, you read it out loud) and find themselves in Magnolia.
1. Chapter 1

[* means there's a note at the end]

-  
Chapter 1: Restricted, but not for us.  
-

"God damnit." A young brunette sighs as she closes the tab on the library computer. Her fingers tap the old desk lightly, trying to think of something else to do.

"These computers are so slow! Did you _have_ to forget your laptop at home?" Her raven haired friend asks as she lets out a sigh of frustration.

"So, since we can't use the internet, what do you suggest we do, Crystal?" Beq replies, running her hand through her short hair.

"Let's check out the manga section and see what volumes of Fairy Tail they have, it's your favourite manga right?" Crystal asks as she begins to get up.

"Heck yeah." Beq says, following her slightly taller friend.

Crystal begins walking towards the manga section when she stops so suddenly that Beq bumps into her.

"Ouch! Hey, what are you-" Beq begins to say.  
"-Are you seeing this?"  
"Seeing what?"  
"You're kidding right, you're _not_ seeing your favourite manga's main character's look-alike that's standing right there?"  
"Oh my gosh- I- what!?"  
"This is like, a once in a lifetime chance! We can't let him get away."  
"Wait, what? Are you proposing we stalk this guy?" Beq raises her eyebrow at her friend.  
"You know exactly what i'm proposing and I know that you were thinking it before me."  
"Shut up."  
Crystal smirks as she turns and peers around the aged bookshelf to watch the mysterious man walk across the room.

"Hey, he's walking into the restricted section. Let the stalking begin!" Crystal exclaims excitedly.  
"Not so fast, sonic." Beq says as she steps in front of her friend. "You _do_ know what _restricted_ means right?"  
"It means that no one but us is allowed to pass?"  
"Perfect."

* * *

"Sooo, um. Who would have thought that the restricted section would be so...huge?" Crystal nervously asks as she looks around the rows and rows of metal cabinets and 30-foot tall shelves surrounding her and her friend.

The shelves were lined with books of all different colours and sizes. Some were falling apart as the covers had fold lines and tears revealing yellowed pages while others looked fairly recent, with clear packaging still intact.

"Could you maybe stop looking around like that and think about the situation we're in?" Beq eyes her friend as she stops to catch her breath.

"Well, we're lost anyways so you might as well absorb the view."

"I think we'll be looking at the same view for a very long time at the rate we're going."

"It's not my fault we lost him!"

"Are you kidding? You broke out into an all-out sprint as soon as the librarian looked our way. You know perfectly well that our fitness levels are not quite the same."

"At least they didn't catch us…" Crystal trails off as she notices something across the room and starts towards it.

"Hey, at least they have manga here!" Beq realizes when she sees where Crystal is headed.

"Why would they keep manga in the restricted section…?" Crystal inquires while scanning the shelves, her question put aside for now.

"I seriously don't want to answer that."

"I seriously don't want to know how you know the answer…" Crystal pauses, putting down a book and facing Beq for emphasis.

Beq laughs and waves her friend away as she notices something on the shelf, perking up as she takes out a never-before-seen volume of fairy tail.

"Alright alright, i get it. Hey check this out!"

Studying the book, she notes that this probably isn't an actual volume. The book is completely black, with only the title "Fairy Tail" on the cover, and the guild's symbol underneath it.

Flipping the book to a random page, she reads aloud;

"Kathós oi istoríes prolégoun,  
Copias cogere,  
Incantesimi ad essere parlata,  
Kowaretasekai no ma no Geitsu."

"What the hell are you reading?" Crystal stares at Beq incredulously.

"Hell if I know, but if there's one thing that I've learnt from fanfiction, it's that you always read the strange lettering aloud."

"Ooh, want to try reading it together? We can feel like magical girls!"

"Hell yeah!"

"I sure hope we don't unleash some sort of catastrophic incident where meteors shower down on the earth and cause the destruction of everything, launching a selected group of teenages into a game of life or death or anything.*****"

"Gosh, that would be terrible. Come here and let's read this thing and hope for the best."

Crystal crosses over to where Beq sits holding the book and kneels down beside her. It takes a few tries because one of them keeps messing up and then the other one makes fun of her but eventually, they manage to say it.

_"Kathós oi istoríes prolégoun,_  
_Copias cogere,_  
_Incantesimi ad essere parlata,_  
_Kowaretasekai no ma no Geitsu."_

A bright light emits from the book, enveloping the two girls in its warmth.

"HELL YEAH!" was the last thing Beq said before the pair passed out.

* * *

A/N:

_Lunariis:_ Ah. What started out as just a cliche idea spiraled down until i came up with a ton of ideas for it. Here we go

_Crystal:_ While the chant wasn't perfectly translated, it still makes some sense. Sorry for those who speak those languages

_Lunariis:_ The languages are Greek, Latin, Italian, and Japanese, for those who want to translate it

_*Homestuck reference. You can read exactly what we just described at mspaintadventures dot com . All credit to Andrew Hussie for that._


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2: A Whole New World

*Slap*. _Ouch. What is that?_

*Slap*. _There it is again._

A distant voice can be heard, supposedly yelling. As Beq comes to, she can make the voice out to be Crystal.

"Wake up! My hand is starting to sting and _I'm_ not even the one getting slapped" Crystal says, exasperated, as she prepares to slap her friend again.

"I'm up, I'm up!" Beq bolts up and collides with Crystal's forehead as she avoids her friend's hand.

"Ow!" Crystal gets up and rubs her forehead, offering a hand to Beq.

"What are_ you_ crying about? You weren't the one getting slapped while laying there unconscious with her guard down." Beq says pointedly as she accepts her friend's hand and stands.

"So, where are we?" She asks while looking around for the first time.

"I'm not sure. We seem to be on the outskirts of some town." Crystal points in the direction of some buildings in the distance.

"This place doesn't look really modern…" Crystal says, pausing, before she gasps and continues "...Do you think we travelled back in time?"

"Hold up. See that fancy church over there? I am pretty sure that that's the church, or cathedral I guess, in Magnolia. You know, in Fairy Tail?" Beq says pointing towards the town.

Crystal's eyes widen as she processes the thought.

"You're kidding, we just got stuck in your favourite manga?"

"I feel like this should have been obvious, the book with the spell did say Fairy Tail on it."

"Speaking of the book, where is it?"

"...It's not here…Do you think it got left behind?"

"I wouldn't be surprised. Spells, or rather this is more of a curse, tend to do that i guess?"

"I don't know... if this is a curse then it's a pretty good one to have. Think about it, what, or _who_ in Fairy Tail are you absolutely in love with?"

"Natsu." Beq says bluntly.

"Right. But one more thing. What, in fairy tail, do most people have?" Crystal says, raising an eyebrow while grinning at her friend.

"Magic! A.k.a the greatest thing ever!"

_Ouch, sorry Natsu. I prefer magic over you_, Beq thinks to herself.

"Right! That means that even we could have magical powers, right? I mean, maybe we don't know what it is, or how to use it, or _anything_ but…" Crystal begins to ramble excitedly, her words speeding up.

"Yeah, but there's the problem of looking like an idiot while trying to figure it out." The brunette cuts her off.

"...What if we say that we are from a small village that forbids magic, because they say it's evil?" Beq continues.

"Ooh good idea! Then we can get some wizards -cough, Natsu, cough- to help us discover and train our powers!" Crystal suggests, her eyes lighting up.

"Perfect! We left because we always thought magic was incredible and beautiful, so we came to find Fiore's number one guild, Fairy Tail!"

"You are surprisingly good at coming up with stories."

"I think about this stuff a lot." Beq admits. "I have a lot of free time, and not enough stories to read. Never enough."

"Alright, let's go to Magnolia! Just follow the yellow brick road." Crystal jokes as she heads off in a general direction that she thinks is correct.

"You're going the wrong way, you know."An all too familiar voice calls out behind us.

Crystal and Beq jump with a start at the sudden presence of someone else. Their first encounter with a manga character!

Crystal smiles and inconspicuously elbows Beq, seeing as she's just standing there with her mouth open, staring at her fictional- well, non-fictional- crush.

"O-Oh is that so?...D-...Do you think you could take us there?" Beq asks, nervously. _Curse you social anxiety!_

"Sure! Where in Magnolia are you headed?" Natsu asks while grinning, stepping out from a stone house with a red, tiled roof. He shut the door unusually quickly behind him, almost like it was so messy that things would fall out if he didn't…

"W-Well we wanted to learn magic..a-and possibly join a guild.." She trails off quietly.

"You see, our village never allowed magic because of their beliefs. We always felt that we had the potential to learn it but, because of the looming threat of our community, we never had any freedom to do so...we left because we felt trapped there…" Crystal explains, softly._ Well shit, I am amazing at acting._

"Magic is a beautiful thing, b-but our parents were some of the strictest. They allowed absolutely nothing magic-related. W-we hardly know anything about it..perhaps..um.. I mean.. could you guide us to a library?"

"A library?" Natsu asks, with a puzzled expression.

"To study up on magic.." Beq replies.

"Why don't I bring you to our guild? We have some pretty powerful members who could teach you, it would be much more fun than reading some old books!" He smiles.

"That would be great! Thank you." Crystal smiles back as she exchanges glances with Beq.

"If it wouldn't be too much trouble.. that is.." Beq adds.

"Of course not!" A younger voice that seems to be coming from nowhere says.

"Who was that?" Crystal looks around her, searching for where the voice was coming from.

"Hi, I'm Happy!" A small, blue, winged cat appears from behind Natsu.

_Aww, Happy is so cute!_ Both Beq and Crystal think.

"Oh u-um.." Beq says, while looking thoroughly confused. "H-hello. Actually, I don't think we've introduced ourselves.. I'm Bequerel, t-though you can call me Beq. And this is my best friend, Crystal" She continues, gesturing to her friend who waves upon being mentioned.

"Name's Natsu, nice to meet ya!"

_We know. After all, someone here has spent quite some time "studying" you_. Crystal thinks while sneaking a sideways glance at Beq.

Beq glances back at her as if to say "_I know what you're thinking, and shut up_"

* * *

"So both you and Crystal are the same age?" Happy asks.

"Yes, she and I are both nineteen." Beq replies.

"Your clothes are a little strange." Natsu points out.

"A-Are they? These clothes are normal in our village..."

"I'm sure we can get you some new clothes in Magnolia!" Happy chimes in.

"Where exactly is your village anyways? You talk about it but we never hear you mention a name or location"

"...Oh, Haha! The name of our village is….." Crystal stops and looks at Beq.

"Arendelle.*" Beq answers, causing a stifled giggle from Crystal as she realizes what movie Beq stole that name from.

"As you saw before, our sense of direction isn't really all that great so we don't know how to describe its location." Crystal explains. _We really should have thought this out beforehand... Oh who am i kidding, we're both amazing liars._

If Natsu and Happy noticed the obvious plot holes in their lies, they didn't mention it, for which Beq and Crystal were thankful.*

"..Never heard of it." Natsu said.

"I-It's quite a small village.."

"They try to keep a low profile so they don't attract any outsiders who could potentially use magic." Crystal added.

"Your village sounds lam-"

"-Appy. Lamappy!" Happy quickly cuts Natsu off. "Natsu, don't be rude. We don't know what they've been through." He whispers to Natsu, bonking him on the head.

"...Lamappy?" Crystal looks at Happy curiously.

"Oh, you're not from here so you probably don't know any of our slang ahaha.." Happy lies nervously.

_Oh Happy, you're so cute when you're trying to lie. You're pretty bad at it though, take notes from the masters._

"Anyway, here we are! Fiore's number 1 guild, Fairy Tail!" Natsu announces, gesturing to a large building in front of the group.

"Oh wow.." Beq mutters in awe.

"It's even more amazing in person." Crystal whispers to Beq.

Suddenly, Natsu runs up to the door and kicks it open, slamming it with a loud thud.

_WHAT?! Doesn't he care about whether it breaks or not?! Wait, nevermind. He does that all the time in the manga._

"You'd think we'd be used to it by now after watching it happen so many times." Crystal whispers to Beq.

"HEY GRAMPS! WHERE ARE YOU!?" He shouts, everyone's attention now glued to them.

"The master is out at a conference right now, what do you need, Natsu?" A voice that could only belong to _the_ Mirajane says sweetly. She lets out a small "Oh!" as she notices the two girls on either side of him. "And who are these two?"

"H-Hello. I'm Crystal and this is Beq." Crystal says politely.

"They wanted to join our guild!" Natsu says excitedly.

"B-but we don't know any magic yet, we were hoping t-that.. maybe one of you c-could..teach us? You see, our village..." Beq mutters, trailing off as she repeats our earlier explanation to Natsu.

"N-Natsu said that..one of you might...teach us.." She finishes.

"Of course, what kind of magic were you hoping to learn?" Mira asks

"I-I'm not too sure.." Beq mutters

"Keeping in mind that we haven't actually done anything magic-related before...we don't really know what we're most suited for…" Crystal adds.

"I see, well come this way and we'll give you your guild marks."

Crystal is surprised for a moment before she realizes that Lucy, Wendy, Gajeel, and Juvia also got their guild marks just as easily. _Seriously, it's like they hand them out like candy. They're just all chill about it like; Oh you want one? Here you go. Oh, you too? There. You want a pink one? Sure no prob._

Beq, of course, did not give a shit because Fairy Tail _hell yeah_!

The two girls follow Mira to the bar where she grabbed a stamp from behind the counter.

"Where would you like the mark?" She asks.

"The hand, please!" Crystal decides.

"Oh man where should I have mine." Beq whispers to Crystal

"Try not to get too creative, we want it to be visible, right?" Crystal raises an eyebrow at Beq.

"I guess."

"Um… how about on the front side of my neck*?" Beq asks, pulling her pink scarf down and pointing to the area around the front of her neck

"Sure, what color?"

_BRIGHT FUCKING RED_ Beq thinks. "Bright red please.."

"Sky blue!" Crystal states her favourite colour while shooting Beq a glance, telling her she noticed what Beq was about to blurt out.

She stamps the emblem on Crystal's hand first, and for some reason, Crystal bursts out laughing like an idiot because she's trying to make Beq not feel as bad when Mira stamps her neck because that will inevitably lead to Beq laughing like an idiot as well.

"Why do you not trust me, I have told you before its the back of my neck that's sensitive not the front or side." Beq whispers, glaring at her friend.

As Mira stamps Beq's neck, you can tell she was trying her hardest not to laugh just to spite Crystal.

"I hate you." She whispers to her friend.

Crystal smirks and gives her friend a pitying pat on the shoulder.

"It's okay. I laughed like an idiot for you. Just let it out." Crystal whispers to Beq as she inconspicuously pokes her in the side, right in her ticklish spot, while Mira's not looking.

Beq tries to stifle her laughter and instead lets out a small giggle.

_Praise the almighty lord it sounded cute_. Beq sighs in relief. Both Crystal and Beq had one too many moments where their laughs did not sound...the greatest..._More like laughed like a fucking constipated troll_.

~Meanwhile… in the main area of the Guild…~

"What are they saying, Natsu?" Happy pesters Natsu while looking over at the bar where the girls are.

"They've been laughing the whole time!"

"Well? What are they laughing about?"

"...Natsu?" Happy finally turns to where Natsu was a moment ago...and finds him arguing with Gray again.

"WHY CAN'T I GO ON S-CLASS JOBS"

"Because your not strong enough to take them on!"

"What?! Remember the one we took with the cursed moon and we fought that big monster?!"

"We fought _Deliora_ on _Galuna Island_,_ flamebrain_. And you took that job without permission and Erza and I had to come save your ass!"

"You wanna go, _ice princess_!?"

"Boys! Knock it off!" A strong, yet feminine voice booms.

"YES MA'AM!" Natsu and Gray shout in unison.

A tall woman with scarlet hair walks in proudly through the front doors, towing a huge amount of luggage behind her like it's nothing.

"Oh gosh, it's Erza, Crystal. Crystal, it's_ the_ Erza!" Beq continues her whispering.

"I know! I've always wanted to meet her. She's my favourite character in Fairy Tail." Crystal whispers back, her eyes wide with excitement.

"It seems we have some new recruits." Erza says looking in Crystal and Beqs direction.

"H-Hello! It's nice to meet you." Crystal says, shyly.

Beq takes a deep breath, not wanting to fuck this one up.

"Hello ma'am, my name is Bequerel, and this is Crystal. It's a pleasure to meet you." She says smoothly. _Hell fucking yes._

Crystal looks at Beq like; _how the fuck did you do that? I'm supposed to be the smooth one._

_You have your idols and I have mine._

_True, you did stutter a lot around Natsu_. Crystal smiles, recalling the thought and re-assuring herself.

"Crystal, I don't think I can afford to be nervous around her." She answers her best friend's questioning look.

"It's a pleasure to meet you too, my name is Erza." Erza says, turning in their direction for a brief moment before heading over to Natsu and Gray.

Crystal turns back to Mirajane and continues their earlier conversation.

"So...do you think there's anywhere else we can stay for now? We wouldn't want to impose on you since we won't be able to start finding jobs until we train our magic."

Suddenly the guild bursts out with offers to stay in their homes.

"They can stay with us!" Natsu shouts over the rising conversation and suddenly, everyone goes quiet.

Mirajane stares at Natsu, her expression pleasant on the outside... but we had read enough of Fairy Tail to know what that really meant. Her message was apparent. _Stay with you? In that PIG STY?_

_Holy fuck yes please and thank you God I love you_. Millions of thoughts ran through Beqs head but that is pretty much the basics of what she was thinking. Beq began to daydream about all the possibilities, making Natsu swoon over her, fixing him a lovely breakfast, cuddling with him at night…

And...Beq snaps back to reality as she notices that Crystal is already talking it over with Natsu, who is not paying attention to Beq. Much less swooning.

"We'd be very grateful if you let us stay there, seeing as you're the only one we really know so far. As for the mess, we don't mind. We can help you clean up and take care of the basic chores, at the very least." Crystal says maturely.

As the words "clean up" come out of Crystal's mouth, Beq immediately shoots a quick glare at her, but stops her deadly look before Nats-anyone can notice.

Crystal returns Beq's almost-glare with an innocent smile...and an equally frightening glare underneath. _Shut up. It's the least we can do._

_I know but it's still bullshit._ She thinks back as if reading her mind.

_You think i'm all happy-go-luck about doing chores? I barely do my own laundry back at home. I'm very capable of cleaning, i just don't enjoy it._

"Then it's settled. Let's go!" Natsu shouts as he turns around and rushes out the door.

_We don't even have any washing machines here!_ Crystal realizes while shooting a panicky look at Beq.

_Aw shit_. Beq thinks while catching on to what Crystal has already realized.

"Natsu! Wait for us!" Crystal starts sprinting before she loses sight of Natsu, leaving Beq behind.

"Noo! Come back, we already went over this! I am basically a noodle who cannot run, get back here!" Beq whisper-shouts and runs after them, already losing her breath.

* * *

Crystal somehow manages to catch up to Natsu who stopped in the middle of the road to inspect something, leading to Crystal almost tumbling over him and falling flat on her face. Almost.

"Strange…" Natsu murmurs, inspecting the ground.

"What?- oh." Crystal finally notices the withered plants.

"Guys- _huff_- I- _huff_- C-can't you go a little - _huff_- s-slower?" Beq manages to breathe out as she catches up. "Crystal-I-I have told you before-_huff_ - that our fitness levels-_ huff_- -very different!"

"Sorry" Crystal looks sheepish as she sits Beq down. She was barely out of breath herself, _the little shit_.

"Stop, catch your breath, and take look at this." Crystal says, pointing to the trail of withered plants on the ground.

"What?...huh." Beq inspects the dead plants. "Inpurresting." She says, letting a small cat pun slip out.

"I can't beleaf you still have the energy for cat puns." Crystal replies.

"What? It's just a bunch of dead plants." Beq says.

"Beq, are you okay? You look like you're dying over there..." Happy asks, looking at Beq's worn out state.

"She's fine. Just give the noodle a moment to swim in the fresh air." Crystal grins, unable to keep a straight face.

"A- I am not a noodle. B- I am not fine." Beq says

"C- You said you were basically a noodle earlier." Crystal laughs as she recalls the moment.

"I can't believe you heard that." Beq's eyes widen as she realize what that means.

"YOU NOOKWEED! You were perfectly aware of the fact that you were ditching me!" Beq accuses.

"Think what you want." Crystal shrugs, her look indifferent. Though the edges of her mouth were twitching up.

"Let's just keep going..."

* * *

A/N: Ch.2

Crystal: Here's the translation for the spell in the previous chapter! Props to all who translated it correctly!

Lunariis: I'm pretty sure the translation was really shitty. I'm sorry.

It was also just a pretty shitty spell we made up on the spot, but for the most part it works.

As the stories foretell

Forces will compel

Spells to be spoken

Gates between worlds, broken

"Kathós oi istoríes prolégoun, -Greek

Copias cogere, -Latin

Incantesimi ad essere parlata, -Italian

Kowaretasekai no ma no Geitsu." -Japanese

*Arendelle is the kingdom from the Disney movie, Frozen. Since both Crystal and Beq are shit at coming up with names, Beq decided it would be best to use a name from a movie, it works because none of the FT characters know of it, hurray!

*Natsu is a dragon slayer so of course he has super hearing. He's also surprisingly observant at times so we added in the part about "If they noticed our obvious lies…" hinting at how they probably did, in fact, notice but chose not to mention it.

*for those who are unclear, Beq's guild mark is in the same spot as Elfman's.

P.S. We try to update weekly, or sooner if possible. Writing is very fun for us!


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3: Just a Lot of Awkwardness

_Ugghh_. Beq thinks as she flops down on one of the couches in Natsu's house. The interior is still a mess and they've been cleaning for SO LONG.

"Come on, Beq. It's only been 3 hours. It's noon, now!"

"3 hours is enough. I'm done." Beq sighs "How did Lucy do this in one day?"

"Lucy has magical manga powers and also, the author probably didn't want to draw panels and panels of her cleaning." Crystal replies, matter-of-factly.

"You can have a small break, I'm tired too. Haven't done this much cleaning in a while." Crystal sighs, placing a bucket of dirty water down.

"Mhm. My room is cleaner than this and that's saying something." Beq laughs.

_What were those dead plants all about? I swear, they mean something, but what?_ These questions had been weighing on Crystal's mind ever since earlier.

"Hello? Earthland to Crystal. No appreciation for my jokes?"

"I'm going to go outside and get a new bucket of water."

Crystal exits through the backdoor of the messy house and steps outside, breathing a breath of fresh air as she does so. _God, how does Natsu live in there?_

She turns to the wooden water pump as she carries the bucket over but something catches her eye. A small patch of dead grass is spotted a little farther away.

She places the bucket down and hurries over to the spot, looking around to see what might have caused it, but no such luck.

Kneeling down to inspect the dark patch, she brings her hands closer to touch it but- _Wait...What?_ A soft blue glow envelopes her hands and each blade of grass as they straighten and grow greener.

"What. The. Hell?!" She yells out loud, shocked. She yanks her hands away and the grass limps slightly again, not fully revived.

"Life magic, huh." Natsu's voice comes out of nowhere.

Crystal jumps with a start at the sudden presence of someone else, already a bit tense because of what just happened.

Natsu leaps down from an apple tree nearby and crosses over to inspect the grass.

"Cool! We don't even need a gardener with you here. See, Happy?" Natsu says while looking up at his flying exceed friend.

Crystal just stares at him as she processes what just happened. _How can he be so chill about it? Oh, you brought something dead back to life. Cool. Think you could do that to Happy if he falls while flying? That'd be great, thanks._

"So you're slacking off without me, Crystal?" Beq whispers to her friend, suddenly appearing next to her. "What is this? Are you guys performing some kind of garden ritual or something?" She adds.

"I- We- the grass…" Crystal stutters, apparently unable to form coherent words.

"We don't need a gardener anymore!" Happy says.

"Uh... C-care to elaborate?" Beq asks, a bit louder now so that Natsu and Happy can hear.

"The grass came back to life!" Natsu answers.

Beq glances at Crystal, searching for a valid explanation.

"I think...w-what Natsu and Happy mean to say...or what I think anyways...is that I have an attribute for life-related magic." Crystal explains, still dazed.

"I see...Well that's great! You can be the healer in our rag-tag team of people who hardly know magic." Beq says.

"Right. I'll heal people to death on the battlefield. Such a great power to have." Crystal says, sarcastically.

"You can't heal people to death." Beq says, sassing Crystal.

"Well shit. If I can't heal them to death then I'll just have to kill them with my awesome magic tricks!"

"Your magic tricks are healing."

Crystal shoots a pointed look at Beq, knowing how long this argument will go on if they keep it up.

"Uh-huh." Beq says.

"Well, I don't even know the extent of my so-called "powers" yet...Want to head to town for lunch? We can talk it over with Mirajane there."

"Sure, since all the food in Natsu's house is rotting..."

"Wait, that stuff was food?! I thought it was just part of the trash piles!"

"I can hear you, you know." Natsu adds.

"We know." Crystal says, standing up while using Beq as an anchor, making her tumble over. "Let's get going, then!"

"Crystaalll.." Beq whines, now laying on her back.

"Shoot, I forgot... you're like a turtle and can't get up when you're laying down"

Beq lets out a deep sigh before rolling onto her side and getting up.

"I can get up just fine, thank you very much."

"I was wondering how you got out of bed every morning." Crystal grins as she begins to run towards town before Beq can retort.

"Ouch." Was all Beq said, tucking some hair behind her ear before running after her, leaving Natsu behind.

"H-HEY WAIT UP!" Natsu called out after them.

Only a few moments later, Natsu has caught up and Beq is already out of breath.

"Hurry up, Beq, you're going to get left behind!" Natsu calls to her as he runs past.

"P-Please..-_huff_..w-wait, I have asthma _-huff-_ and n-no inhaler.."

"I'll walk with you!" Happy says while flying along beside her.

"C-can't you carry people?" Beq manages to spit out.

"Aye!" Happy realizes and grabs a hold of Beq, catching up to everyone else. "You're much lighter than Natsu.." Happy notes.

"O-Oh is that so..." Beq says, looking to the side.

"Happy, didn't anyone teach you not to carry food around like that?" Crystal calls back at them.

"Hey, I'm not-"

"-You're a noodle turtle, remember?"

"...This is what I have to deal with." Beq sighs.

Happy and Beq finally catch up to the other two, who have now slowed down to a walk, and places Beq down between Crystal and Natsu

Crystal laughs as she casually nudges Beq closer to Natsu as they walk.

On the way to town, Happy seemed to be fascinated with Crystal's newly-discovered powers. He kept pulling plants loose and bringing them over to her to see what would happen. Though some of the plants had guests...with a few extra legs…

"Happy, for the last time. I'm pretty sure it has to be dead or at least injured." Crystal reminds Happy, yet again, as she takes the plant from his paws.

"Uhh...Crystal…the plant...is moving…" Beq says, very slowly, as she notices something in the plant.

"Huh? Wait-what? Oh. OH! IT'S A BUG!" Crystal shouts and drops the plant right away, stomping on it with her shoes.

"I think it's dead now…" Happy says as he watches Crystal stomp her foot down on the creepy crawler repeatedly.

"Oh, wait! Hey, it's coming back to life!"

The look on Crystal's face is one of absolute horror as she realizes she can no longer murder her worst enemies; bugs.

Beq pats her friend's shoulder reassuringly.

"It's okay. Up until now, you've been the only one brave enough to kill them...and since you can't do it anymore...well, we're screwed because I sure as hell ain't gonna do it." Beq sighs. "The human race will fall to the hands of bugs and it will be all your fault." She says quietly.

"Oh shut up."

* * *

"Interesting. So it seems that Crystal does have some sort of healing or life magic." Mirajane says, thoughtfully.

"Yeah, on the way here, Happy tried experimenting with different things and it seemed to work on living things too. Although it wasn't dead for long..." Crystal shudders at the thought of the critter.

"I wonder if it's just bringing dead things back or if you can heal wounds too.." Beq mutters.

"Why don't we try and see?"

Crystal, Beq, and Happy jump a little when Erza's voice comes out of nowhere... but relax when she goes to stand behind Natsu, placing her hands on his shoulders.

"W-What do you mean?" Crystal asks.

"You know, I find it funny how you seem to speak fine when you don't realize I'm here." Erza jokes. "But putting that aside, we have a plaything right here, don't we?" Erza emphasizes her point by tightening her hold on Natsu, probably so he can't escape…

"You can't be thinking…" Beq trails off.

"Well, why not? We have a healer right here." Erza grins as her eyes light up at the thought.

What is she thinking? Is she going to kill him? Crystal's eyes widen.

"Y-You're not going to kill him or anything, right?" Crystal panics. "I mean, I d-don't even know if my magic is that strong and, what if it doesn't work? What if Natsu actually dies and-"

"Don't be silly, I won't kill him. I'm only going to wound him." Erza says.

"Isn't anybody going to ask if I'm okay with this?!" Natsu says, shakily. He was probably recalling all the times Erza 'wounded' him.

"Tch."

Everyone's attention turns back to Beq, whose hand is now bleeding, bite marks visible on her thumb.

"There." Beq says quietly.

"Beq, you saved my life! How can I ever repay you? Do you want a hug, maybe some fish?" Happy's voice comes from behind Natsu as he makes fun of him.

_That hug would be nice._

Crystal nervously approaches her friend as their companions watch her, though Natsu seemed to be pre-occupied with trying to catch Happy.

"I-I'm not quite sure how this works. It seems to j-just happen by itself."

She touches the wound on Beq's hand and the familiar blue glow envelopes both girls' hands, the blood slowly disappearing and the wound healing.

"So you can heal wounds, too." Erza notes.

"The pain is all gone as well.." Beq adds.

"Well it's great that I-I'm a healer and all..." Crystal starts, turning around to face the others. "B-but…" She clears her throat and begins again, her voice steadier. "But I want to fight, too!"

"..Then I will train you to fight." Erza says, with a small smile. "We start training immediately, lets go!" She says, dragging Crystal off.

"Then I guess I'll help you find your magic, Beq!" Mirajane says, taking Beq's hand and dragging her off too, leaving Natsu and Happy at the guild.

"Did we just get ditched?" Happy asks.

"I think so." Natsu replies, huffing in annoyance.

* * *

"Empty your mind, let it go blank. Submerge your thoughts and just focus on feeling." Mirajane's soothing voice fills the air.

Beq is kneeling beside a waterfall with her hands submerged and her eyes closed.

"I'm trying, Mira, but I really don't think I have an affinity with water magic." Beq says, taking her hands out of the water and shaking them dry.

"You have to believe in yourself, you know." Mirajane replies.

"I know, but I've tried for a full 10 minutes and my hands are prunes, now." Beq holds her wet hands up for emphasis. "Crystal has it easy. It just came to her naturally." Beq sighs.

"Well, lets try something else."

"What else can we try? We've already attempted take-over, requip, make magic, and more!"

"Let's take a break, then. I'll go gather some more materials we can use." Mirajane turns and heads towards the forest where she soon disappears.

"Hey, how's the training going?" A friendly voice calls out from above.

"N-Natsu! W-Why are you h-here?" Beq mentally curses at her stuttering.

"We came to see how you were doing!" Happy drops Natsu down into the grass where he lands beside Beq.

"The training is going awful.." Beq sighs.

"Cheer up! I'm sure everything'll get better from here on out." Natsu says, putting an arm around Beq as a friendly gesture.

The wind picks up a bit and leaves gently swirl around.

Happy stops flying and lands beside Natsu.

"It's getting windier." He notes.

"There wasn't any wind a minute ago."

"Beq, you look a bit strange. Are you cold?" Happy asks, looking up at Beq.

"I-I-I'm f-fine.." Beq mutters.

The wind begins to pick up some more. Leaves are blown past them and the trees sway a bit.

"Your face is turning all red, Beq." Happy looks concerned as he watches Beq.

Natsu leans down a bit and touches his forehead to Beq, checking her temperature.

"Seems fine to me." He says.

By now, the wind is blowing strong and the trees are swaying violently. Happy is clinging onto Natsu to avoid being blown away.

"We should go inside!" Natsu shouts over the wind. "Come on!" He grabs her arm and pulls her up as they head into the forest where the small hut Mirajane set up is located.

As they reach the hut, the wind slams the door open and Mirajane is seen inside with a surprised expression.

"What's going on?" She asks.

"The wind's going crazy!" Natsu replies.

Natsu pulls Beq and Happy inside and slams the door shut. He lets go of Beq and as soon as he does so- the wind dies down, though still blowing.

Mirajane notices this and her look becomes thoughtful.

"Beq, come over here, please." She says, sweetly.

"O-Okay." Beq crosses over. "What is it?"

Mirajane gently places one hand on Beq's shoulder and with her other hand, she takes ahold of Natsu's arm. She smiles again and proceeds to shove Natsu onto Beq! The wind slowly begins to howl once more.

Beq almost immediately pushes Natsu away, and the wind starts to die down again.

"Sorry about that." Mirajane chuckles lightly, and pulls Beq aside. "I think we know what your magic is now, and…" Mirajane's voice drops to a whisper. "...that your emotions influence your magic."

After a moment or two, it finally clicks in Beq's mind and she hides her face with her hands, letting out a deep sigh.

"Can we just go visit Crystal, please?" Beq asks quietly, her voice muffled by her hands.

* * *

_Clang._

"Good. Just like that!" Erza says.

_Clang_. Crystal charges with the metal sword again, holding it with both hands and stepping aside in an attempt to dodge some of Erza's strikes.

"You're getting better." She comments, effortlessly blocking Crystal's attempts.

_CLANG!_

"That strike was strong. Now, moving on to hand-to-hand combat!" Erza's movements are swift as she strikes Crystal's blade to the ground and throws her own weapon beside it.

Crystal raises her arms and moves into a fighting stance, huffing.

"Come at me!" Erza says.

Crystal swung her fist, but only to be blocked by Erza.

"That was good." Erza says, throwing her own fist at Crystal, hitting her in the shoulder.

The fight dragged on until the final punch was thrown by Erza, hitting Crystal right in her stomach, causing her to stumble and fall onto her back.

"That's enough for today." Erza says, barely out of breath as she goes to converse with Mirajane.

"Nice fight." Beq compliments, coming up to Crystal and helping her up."You look like you're gonna die." She laughs

"I'm f-fine." _I'm not fine, I was so scared. I was up against Erza, holy shit._ "So... d-did you...find out what magic...y-you can use?" Crystal replies between breaths, running her hand through her hair and moving it out of her face.

"...Well...Yeah, but.." Beq sighs. "I have wind magic, but it's influenced by my emotions and..." She whispers the earlier events into her friend's ear, causing the latter to burst out into laughter.

"S-So.. Did Natsu and Mira figure it out y-yet or?" Crystal asks between laughs.

"Natsu still doesn't seem to know." _Because he's dense as fuck._ "But Mira knows. She promised to keep it a secret though." Beq replies, while inconspicuously stepping on her friend's foot.

"O-Okay, okay.. I think I'm good..." Crystal breathes out, stretching her sore limbs and attempting to discreetly get Beq back for stepping on her foot.

"Ow! Oh shi-" Crystal yelps as she begins to fall.

Beq had noticed Crystal trying to step on her foot so she had stepped back and stomped on Crystal's other foot, causing her friend to trip.

"Beeeqqqqqqq…." Crystal whines, laying down on the ground with half her face on it.

"Who's the turtle now?" Beq muses.

"I am…" Crystal gets up, appearing downcast while looking down until an evil grin appears on her face and she pokes Beq in the side, tickling her, then runs away knowing her noodle friend won't be able to catch up.

"-not!" She finishes, laughing from the other side of the field.

"Alright, enough goofing off. It's time for your first mission." Erza says, walking back over to Beq.

"W-What? A-already? But, shouldn't we t-train our powers first?" Crystal asks, walking back over to the group. _Why do I only stutter around Erza, my IDOL? Good going, Crystal._

"I've discussed it with Mira and Natsu, since you're still only beginning to discover your powers, my team and I will be assisting you."

Crystal's jaw drops open.

"What's the mission?" Beq asks, quietly.

"I have confidence in your abilities. You're quick learners. I trust that Mira has also trained you a bit on your way here?" Erza inquires.

"Y-yeah, a bit." Beq says, recalling what had happened earlier. She experimented blowing objects around as they walked, though she may have gotten carried away at one point..._I'll have to apologise to Happy for trying to make him fly._

"Good. The mission is to investigate some vulcan sightings near a small village." Erza says, showing them the piece of paper with the request on it "The reward is 10,000 jewels for the investigation."

"Beq, you're the fairy tail stalker. What's jewels converted to dollars?" Crystal whispers to Beq.

"I'm not a stalker, you're the one who made jokes about being outside my window every night."

"Fairy tail stalker. We all know I'm the of-fish-al stalker." Crystal replies, slipping in a fish pun.

"100 jewels is 1 dollar." Beq pauses. "So, 10,000, that's...100 dollars, I think."

"Well? Are you ready to go?" Erza says as she starts heading back towards the town.

"W-wait. We're leaving now?" Crystal asks, surprised.

"If you mean for training, then yes. We're going to be watching your progress over the course of two weeks and once the time is up, we'll head off to the village. We'll also need to visit the armor shop to pick up some weapons." She comments, looking at the girls' strange outfits.

"R-right!" Beq softly calls out as the two girls sprint a little to catch up with the others.

* * *

The group walks through the armor shop, looking down every aisle for some suitable weaponry for the girls. Beq has already picked out a golden staff with a crescent moon on the end, a golden lacrima floats in the center of the moon to increase magical power.

Meanwhile, Crystal is admiring swords with Erza as she receives advice from the latter.

She picks up a slightly curved blade with a purple tint, tiny black designs were engraved on the blade in swirls. The hilt was embedded with small fuschia lacrima to improve strength.

"T-This one is nice." Crystal says quietly, examining the sword in her hands.

She pauses for a moment, then proceeds to swing the sword around, slashing through the air, trying to get the feel of the blade.

"Hey! Don't swing it around like that, you might hurt yourself, girly!" The shop owner calls from across the room.

"Would someone who couldn't handle a sword really be shopping for them?" Crystal retorts, annoyed, her nervousness around Erza temporarily going away. _We've already had two weeks of training, I'm not going to do something stupid like "accidentally" beheading myself._

The owner grumbles and goes back to what he had been doing before.

"Crystal, Crystal!" Beq calls, running up to her friend, a blue wizard hat upon her head with golden swirls around the band and a star hanging from the end. "Look, Look! Isn't it cute?" She says happily, pointing to her hat with one hand. The other hand was hidden behind her back.

Her friend looks up from examining the purple sheath that comes with the sword.

"Nice! You'll fit right in." Crystal laughs at the thought of walking through town with a wizard hat, thinking of all the stares they'll get.

Beq rolls her eyes at her friend.

"I think it's very cute." Erza says with a small smile.

"T-thank you!" Beq replies while turning back to Crystal. "I found something for you, too!" She says, taking her other hand out from behind her back and placing a black headband upon Crystal's head. Purple ribbons that looped in a way that kind of reminded her of a christmas bow rested on the side, black beads looped around the bow.

"There. Purrfect." She says.

"Thanks. It keeps most of the hair out of my face." Her friend remarks.

"It looks good on you." Erza pauses. "Did you say 'purrfect'?"

"A-ah.. yeah, i-it's a bit of a habit.." Beq says quietly. "A-anyway, I found some matching armor over here, c-come on" She says, grabbing Crystal by the arm and dragging her along.

She stops a few aisles over, looking for the right one, grabbing it and shoving Crystal into a dressing room with it.

As she steps out of the dressing room, she notices that Beq is no longer there.

"That looks nice!" Happy says as he and Natsu walk up to her, looking at her outfit. She had on a dark purple sleeveless tailcoat, a pink jewel rested on her chest. Her arms were covered by a pair of purple gloves that stretched to her underarm. She wore a voluminous black skirt that reached her thighs and black leggings with purple diamonds running down the side. Her boots were black and had a white bow on the front and purple frills at the top.*

"Thanks. Have you seen Beq?" Crystal asks, looking around for her short friend.

"I'm right here." Beq says stepping out of the dressing room next to her.

She sported a sleeveless blue dress with a white corset around the middle. The skirt was layered and went down to her thighs. She wore white leggings underneath and some simple white boots. Upon her shoulders was a white cape with a blue jewel on her left shoulder.*

"You look cute!" Natsu says with a smile.

"Th-th-thank you." Beq blushes, taking off her hat to hide her face. _Curse this cute boy._

"They lllllllliiiike each other!" Happy teases.

"Sh-Shut up!" Beq blushes even harder.

Natsu, however, being the dense idiot he is, replies with:

"We're friends, aren't we? Why would you be friends with people you didn't like?" Which received a deep sigh from the people around him.

"Friendzoned, much?" Crystal whispers to Beq, teasingly.

"Oh shut up."

"Have you picked out everything?" Erza says, crossing over to the group.

"Yeah." Beq says flatly, though no one seems to notice it, except for Crystal of course.

"Let's go pay, and then we're off." She says, turning around and heading for the counter, the others following her.

* * *

The train ride was incredibly boring. Crystal had shoved Beq into the seat next to Natsu, whose head is now in her lap, snoring away.

"Soo.." Lucy, who had met them at the station with Gray, started while trying to break the silence. "Tell us more about Aren...Arendelle was it?"

"Um…" Crystal glances at Beq, inconspicuously and continues. "It's kind of old-fashioned...The people who run the town are two sisters and-" _Shit. We can't really include all the magical details because that doesn't match up with what we said earlier._

"-as you know, they don't approve of magic. Aside from that though, it was a pretty fun place and the scenery was nice, we were near the ocean."

"In my opinion, the library was the best part." Beq starts.

"Yeah! I remember once, we snuck into the restricted section."

"Ahaha.. More like you dragged me there to follow a cute boy you saw."

"Shut up. It was for your sake. After all, he did look like-" She begins, glancing at the sleeping dragon slayer.

"-Norman?" Beq says, quickly filling in the blank with an old classmate's name. "So? What if he was an employee there, we could have gotten caught. We would have been kicked out for sure! Maybe banned!"

"Yeah, but he was cute."

Crystal barely manages to stifle her laughter as she notices the light pink tinge appearing on Beq's face.

"Whatever." Beq sighs, unconsciously petting Natsu's hair.

"...Well uh.. What were the people there like?" Lucy asked, trying to change the topic.

"I hated everyone." The two said in unison.

"They were all idiots." Crystal sighs

"Excuse me?" Beq looks at her, pretending to be offended.

"Okay, so you were less of an idiot." Her friend replies, grinning.

"It's our mutual hate for those people that brings us together."

"Yeah. I only hang out with her because she likes magic."

"You're a wonderful friend, Crystal." Beq says sarcastically.

"I know. You're so lucky to know me." Crystal smirks, adding in a little hair flip.

"You both seem.. different from when we're around everyone else." Lucy notes.

"Ahaha you think so?" Beq laughs a little. "Maybe we just feel a little more.. comfortable around you?"

"Oh?.. Well, thanks I guess." Lucy simply says, looking back down at the sleeping exceed in her lap, the quiet sound of awkwardness now back in the air.

"Hey Erza." Lucy says, peeking over the seats at Gray and Erza. "What's the reward, by the way?"

"140,000 Jewels." Erza answers. "Though, it will be for Crystal and Beq, since they are technically taking the job. We're just here for support and guidance."

"Wait, 140,000 Jewels for an investigation!?" Crystal exclaims. _That's $1,400!_

"Yes, we've received an update on the job. The investigation from two weeks earlier didn't come up with much, but now, two forest vulcans seem to be attacking the village." Erza continues. "The reward has gone up to 70,000 Jewels per vulcan."

"We'll actually be fighting them, now?" Beq asks, processing the thought.

"Well, that's what we trained you for." Erza replies, smiling with anticipation.

* * *

Eventually they arrived at their destination; a town called Orhaven. It was a small town with not many buildings, though you could tell that some of them had been destroyed and roughly patched up.

"I'M ALIVE!" Natsu shouts as he jumps up from Beq's lap.

"A-Are you okay? I mean, as soon as the train started moving, y-you just passed out.." Beq says, as she stands up.

"He has motion sickness, he can't stand transportation." Lucy explains.

"Yeah, but this time it wasn't all that bad, I had a good sleep!" He says with a smile.

"Probably because you slept comfortably in Beq's lap and had her gently petting you." Crystal says quietly with a smirk.

"W-W-Well, I-I d-didn't want to b-be rude and w-w-wake him up or anything and...and p-p-petting him was j-just a habit because I used t-to have dogs, r-r-remember?" Beq panics and rushes her explanation, her face flushed. Wow, real smooth, Slick.

"All joking aside, we should begin the mission." Erza says, appearing beside them.

"Y-Yes, that is a thing we should definitely do!" Beq says, trying to change the subject as they walk off the train.

The edges of Crystal's mouth twitch up as she takes the folded mission paper out of her pocket. She opens it and studies it for a moment before looking up and pointing to a run-down, wooden building with the words "Mayor's office" crudely painted onto it.

"It says we should talk to the mayor for more details." She explains.

"Then let's go." Erza says, heading in the direction of the building.

* * *

The door creaks as the group enters the office, the old woman at the desk looks up from her papers with a scowl.

"Can I help you?" She asks grumpily.

"We're wizards from Fairy Tail, we're here about the job the mayor put up." Erza says, holding up the flier.

"He's in the back." The woman grumbles, her eyes already back on her papers.

"Seems like a friendly place." Crystal whispers to Beq.

"Oh yeah, this place is all rainbows and sunshine." Beq whispers back.

"We're coming in." Erza opens the door and walks through without a second thought.

An overweight, middle-aged man is slumped behind a desk, snoring away. Tall piles of paperwork can be seen on the surface, almost hiding him from view. There is a small name tag labelled "Mayor" lying on the desk.

"You seem to be laid-back, have the vulcans already been taken care of?" Erza inquires, unimpressed.

"Mnmm..Wha?" The old man slurrs out. "Oh, my apologies, I must of dozed off...You must be the wizards from Fairy Tail, right?" He mutters, his voice coarse.

"Yes, we are."

"Good.. As you know, there have been vulcans attacking our village." He pauses, still somewhat asleep. "They seem to come from the forest surrounding our town, from the east I believe. The first attack started when my young daughter had gone for a walk and was singing alone near the edge of the forest."

_Maybe they just didn't like her singing_. Crystal sneaks a glance at Beq.

_Snap_. Beq returns the glance.

"Now I assure you, it's not because they don't like her singing, my Angelica has a beautiful voice!" He shoots a glare at the group. "We experimented a little with multiple people, and they seem to be attracted to lovely singing voices."

"You put peoples' lives at risk?!" Natsu exclaims.

"W-Well, we needed to know what we could do to prevent them from attacking. Singing has been banned in our village, though they keep attacking!" He tries to explain.

_The mayor's a dick._ Beq thinks.

"It doesn't matter what you needed to know. You shouldn't have put the lives of innocent people in danger."

"Yes.. I know.." He exaggerates a sigh. "But.. What's done is done. Maybe you could use this information to lure them to you."

"Have you prepared the reward money?" Lucy inquires, a glint in her eyes.

"Yes, yes, it's all ready. You'll get it when you complete the mission." The old man rolls his eyes.

"Now if you would please, I have much work to get to." The mayor says, hiding a yawn.

"Well then, let's not waste any more time, let's go." Erza says, turning back around and ushering the group out.

* * *

The forest was quiet, except for the sounds of their footsteps.

"Do I really have to do this…?" Beq pleads, quietly.

"Well, you're the only decent singer out of the two of us." Crystal replies.

"That is a lie."

"No, that statement is a lie."

Beq lets out a deep groan, pulling her hat down a little more to cover her face.

"This seems to be a good spot." Erza says, stopping in the middle of a clearing. "We will go hide over there in case you need any help, but you should be fine."

"So, Beq, are you ready to serenade us with your lovely voice?" Crystal teases.

"Why don't you just sing with me?"

"I take it you're going to sing 'Let It Go' from Frozen?" Crystal asks, changing the subject.

"Mmmmnnnyyeaaah probubbly." Beq answers thoughtfully. "Wait mmnnaaah actually, I can't hit the high notes. What about-" She stops as she realizes something.

"What is it?" Crystal asks. Beq responds by running over to a tree in the opposite direction. She stays there for a moment before running back, a small black item in her hands.

"Crystal, I still have my phone."

"What? How'd it get in the tree?" She asks, incredulously.

"My pockets were full, so I put it in my bra."

"What if it dies?"

"Its at..79 percent, its fine for now, if it dies, then maybe Laxus could be a temporary charger."

_Hey Laxus, buddy. Could you hold your finger right here? Yeah, perfect, thanks. Wait he's not in the guild right now is he? Damn, there goes my whole life's plan, now what?_

"What songs do you have on there?" Crystal asks, interrupting Beq's inner monologue

"Let's see.. I have both AOT theme songs on here; music box versions, that one danny phantom parody about Eren, 'Three in the morning', 'Bad Apple', 'Love Kanon' from 'The World God Only Kn'-" Crystal raises her hands to stop her and cuts her off.

"Alright, I get it. You just pulled an orchestra out of your bra."

"Wouldn't you say its more of an… Or-chest-ra." Beq smirks.

"But it's not pronounced that way."

"Don't ruin it." Beq says as she unlocks her phone and scrolls through her songs. "Does it have to have singing or just music in general because I have an extended version of 'Fairy Glitter'."

"I don't know. You expect everyone to pull loads of music out of their body parts?"

"Crystal, we are in Fiore. Magic shenanigans can happen."

"Anyway, I doubt it. Just pick a damn song"

"Okay, okay." Beq says, holding up her hands in defense before randomly picking a song. She unplugged the earbuds and turned the volume up as high as she could, and the music filled the air around them.*

_Ever on and on I continue circling_

_With nothing but my hate in a carousel of agony_

_Till slowly I forget and my heart starts vanishing_

_And suddenly I see that I can't break free-I'm_

_Slipping through the cracks of a dark eternity_

_With nothing but my pain and the paralyzing agony_

_To tell me who I am, who I was_

_Uncertainty enveloping my mind_

_Till I can't break free, and_

Loud thumps echos through the area, the trees' leaves rustle.

_Maybe it's a dream; maybe nothing else is real_

_But it wouldn't mean a thing if I told you how I feel_

_So I'm tired of all the pain, of the misery inside_

_And I wish that I could live feeling nothing but the night_

_You can tell me what to say; you can tell me where to go_

_But I doubt that I would care, and my heart would never know_

_If I make another move there'll be no more turning back_

_Because everything will change, and it all will fade to black_

The trees on the other side of the clearing sway a bit. The movement seems to go from tree to tree, gradually drawing closer to the source of the music.

_Will tomorrow ever come? Will I make it through the night?_

_Will there ever be a place for the broken in the light?-_

A large green fist comes through the trees and slams itself down in the place where the girls had been standing, leaving them hardly enough time to jump out of the way.

"Well, hello there.." Beq mutters, pausing the music and tying her earbuds around her wrist. _Fuck what do I do with my phone?_ She shoots a glance at Crystal, who just shrugs and opens her mouth to speak.

_No one's stopping you from putting the or-chest-ra back where it came from._

"-Yeah, okay, but it could fall out." Beq says, instantly knowing what her friend would say.

"We seriously need to go shopping for bags or something after this." Crystal says, watching as Beq looks towards where the team is hiding, thinking of who to entrust her precious phone to.

Out of the forest comes two big vulcans, as ugly as ever. One vulcan, the one who attacked, had a strand of fur that stood straight up on his head, while the other had a superman curl.

"Tao Ren and superman huh?" Beq laughs.

"Jesus christ, Beq." Crystal snorts.

"I guess this is as a time to test some ideas than any."

"Don't get yourself killed."

"Yeah, yeah, okay."

"Lookie here! More _amazing_ singers, brother!" 'Superman' says, glaring at the girls.

_Hahaha shit does he really think we sang that?_ Beq thinks, moving her phone a little more out of view. Not like they would know what it is, anyways.

"I bet they think they're so special with their great voices. Oh well. We'll crush them and show them that they AREN'T!" He says again, rushing at the girls.

_Fuck! Phone, Phone, Phone. What do I do?!_ Beq panics.

"You first!" The monkey says, swatting at Beq, who narrowly dodged, jumping towards Team Natsu.

"Lucy, hold on to this for me, don't lose it, don't drop it, don't give it to anyone else." She quickly whispers to the group, tossing her phone at Lucy.

"Eh? Wha-" Before she could finish her sentence, Beq has already hopped away.

"She was so slow before!" Happy says, watching as Beq hops around with ease, only slightly out of breath.

"She's using her wind magic to increase her speed and jump higher and farther. A good idea, though it will use quite a bit of her magic if she keeps it up." Erza explains. Mira had informed her of what she had taught Beq over the two weeks.

"Do you think that's why she chose that staff with the lacrima in it?" Gray asks.

"Possibly."

"Hey, Crystal?" Beq begins as she hops back over to her friend.

"Yeah?" Crystal says, dodging another blow from the vulcan and swinging her sword at it.

"Haven't you noticed how only Superman here is fighting?"

"Yeah." She says, jumping onto its arm while it was lowered to the ground. "Is that the best you can do, ya vulture-"

"-Vulcan"

"..-Vulcan!" Crystal finishes, shooting a look a Beq as she strikes at the arm with her blade.

"Caw caw, motherfuckers!" Beq whisper-shouts, shooting a gust of wind at the vulcan, knocking him into a tree, Crystal jumping off before the wind hits.

"Who invited Dave?" Crystal asks, getting a running start at the Vulcan aiming for Beq.

"It's Davesprite, you featherbrain!"

"Whatever, coolkid fangirl!"

"I am the coolkid, it's me. I'm all the coolkids. Oh, sorry, were you looking for the coolkid from that doomed timeline? It's me, I own both the timelines, double the Johns, double the Roses. Better call in the tricksters because it's about to get crazy up in here!" Beq says, thrusting her staff forward, wind flying forth and knocking the vulcan onto the other, effectively knocking them out. "Victory has been achieved!"

Loud footsteps proved this to be false, as a larger vulcan stepped out of the foliage, the fur atop her head in curls and a look of anger upon her face.

"WHO HURT MY BABIES!?" She bellowed, her voice like sandpaper on a chalkboard.

"Well, then." Crystal says, looking at Beq. "Now what?"

"Uh... Tornado?"

"Uh, what about- LOOK OUT!" Crystal yells, reaching for her friend to try and push her out of the way before the mothers hand comes down on her, but she was too far away.

Time seems to slow down, the plants spring to life, growing fast and high. They grow until they are big and strong enough, and they bend over Beq, encasing her in a shield of nature.

The hand hits, the force of the blow sending a gush of wind in all directions but leaving only a dent in the plant, however. The damaged part of the shield quickly repairs itself, healing.

"Oh..wow…" Beq looks up in awe, the lighting tinted green through the vines. The light shines through the gaps and she reaches out to touch the thick wall of greenery until...the plants suddenly shrivel away and shrink back into the ground, leaving only healthy green grass where it had stood.

"..Don't just stand there! Pay attention, DC!" Crystal shouts at Beq, using her chumhandle* rather than her actual name and dashing into the forest with her sword for some reason.

"Crystal! Don't ditch me with this thing!" Beq yells back, before getting knocked back by the vulcans large hand with an "Urmpf!"

"HOW DID THESE WEAK LITTLE FLIES HURT MY BABIES?!" The mama vulcan screeches as Beq gets back up while coughing a little.

"To be fair, they attacked us first and we're just starting to learn magic really, so if they can't handle two girls who don't know magic then i'm pretty sure that makes them the weak-" Crystal's voice calls out from the forest as Beq starts laughing.

"-HOW DARE YOU! COME OUT HERE SO I CAN CRUSH YOU!" The vulcan looks around, scanning the forest.

The ground shakes and trees sprout from the ground behind the monkey, growing taller and stronger than the regular forest trees. A small figure was seen at the top of the growing trees…_Crystal?_

"Beq!" The figure calls out from the trees, alerting her friend.

"..Got it, CP!" Beq says, holding her staff out in front of her. The wind swirls around her, building up before she throws her arm up and the wind flies forward, knocking the vulcan into the trees and leaving the creature unconscious in the process.

The trees grow more and a branch extends, grabbing the vulcan brothers and pulling them over to the mother. More grow until they are completely trapped in a natural shelter. The trunks of the trees grow thick and strong, while upon the leaves plenty of juicy fruits grow.

"That should keep 'em there for a while!" Crystal says. "Beq! Catch me!" She calls before jumping off the tree, seconds before hitting the ground the wind catches her and then immediately drops her on her butt.

"Nice work." Erza says, the rest of the team coming over and congratulating them.

"That was awesome!" Natsu beams.

"Geez, how did you two learn all that in such a short time?" Lucy asks, impressed.

Crystal just looks at her, silently. Her eyes unyielding as she solemnly answers.

"Never be left alone with Erza." She replies. "Though, the plant growing thing was kind of an accident." She smiles, nervously.

"I just kind of… did whatever and h-hoped for the best? Ahahahaha…." Beq answers.

"You don't need to belittle yourself like that. I heard from Mira about how well you did while she trained you!" Erza compliments Beq, proud of their progress.

"T-thank you!" Beq says, before pausing for a moment. "By the way, Crystal, I was thinking and I don't think your magic is really healing magic as we saw earlier. It's probably more along the lines of…. Life manipulation." She tells her friend. "Like a witch."

Crystal contemplates the thought for a moment before crossing over to Beq and taking off her wizard hat, placing it on her own head.

"Do I..._look_ the part now?" She says, striking a ridiculous pose.

"Hey! No fair! You know I'm a witch too!" Beq yells at her friend. "Fear my witchiness!" She says, using her wind to lift the hat off Crystal's head and place it back on her own.

"Don't you think we should head back to town and collect the reward?" Lucy asks, her eyes lighting up again. "Besides, everyone else has already started walking." Lucy points to the group crossing the clearing ahead of them.

"A-ah.. Yeah…" Beq says sheepishly. _No wonder we weren't stuttering_. "By the way, may I have my phone back? The thing I gave you earlier."

"Oh right, here." She says handing back the phone. "Is it some kind of magical item? I've never seen it before."

"Uh.." _Think fast_. "...Yyyeaah, we.. we found it in a town during our travels. It doesn't seem to be very common, though. We just found it on the ground."

"Oh? So it plays music?"

"Yeah…"

* * *

"I'm not trying to cheat you at all!" Lucy smiles, innocently.

"It says right here…" She holds up the updated job flier for the two vulcans that she got from Erza. "-that you requested the extermination of two forest vulcans and that the reward for each one is 70, 000 jewels! And since we were cruelly attacked by a third one which was not mentioned in the flier, it can only mean we walked into this with unexpected danger! If anything, you should be lucky we're alive." Lucy continues, putting on an amazing act. "Now that i think about it...the mother vulcan was stronger than the two you wanted gone...maybe the reward for getting rid of it should be even higher!"

Crystal and Beq were trying to keep in their laughter, though they swore they could see jewels in Lucy's eyes.

"So...don't you think you should just pay us while we're asking nicely?"

The mayor's pudgy face is bright red as he stands behind his desk with his fists clenched. He had been sleeping again when they had walked in, though his awakening was much less polite this time.

"Impossible! You said the little girls were the ones to subdue the monsters as well, you expect me to believe that?! Quit arguing or I'll cut your pay!" The mayor huffs. He seemed to only get worked up when it came to money.

"Little girls? My, these 'little girls' happen to be stronger than you, you know. Or would you like us to release the vulcans early for you? You speak as if you would have no problem dealing with them on your own." Crystal says sternly. "Besides, calling us 'little girls' is quite rude. Should we take that as a form of harassment, Beq?" Crystal turns towards her friend, winking.

"Hmm. Well let's see here…harassment is defined under the Policy of Harassment Prevention and Resolution as 'improper conduct by an individual, that is directed at and offensive to another individual in the workplace, including at any event or any location related to work, and that the individual knew or ought reasonably to have known would cause offence or harm. It comprises objectionable acts, comments or displays that demean, belittle, or cause personal humiliation or embarrassment, and any act of intimidation or threat. It also includes harassment within the meaning of the Human Rights Act, i.e. based on race, national or ethnic origin, colour, religion,_ age_, sex, sexual orientation, marital status, family status, disability and pardoned conviction.' So, yes, I suppose we could, Crystal."

The wind in the room picks up, making the stacks of paper on the mayor's desk fly around.

"First, he refuses to pay us what we've earned, then he insults us? I'd hardly call this behaviour fitting of an authoritative figure." The vines from a potted plant in the corner of the office start to grow, curling loosely around the spot where the mayor is standing.

"What are you-" The mayor cleared his throat. "What do you think you're doing? I can have you reported for causing a ruckus.. in my office, no less!"

"To be fair, we wouldn't even be here this long if you would just hold up your end of the deal." Crystal replies.

"Look, we'll be nice. You've already paid us the 140,000 jewels for the two younger vulcans, so all you owe us is the 80,000 jewels for the mother vulcan." Lucy explains, sweetly.

"8- 80,000 jewels!? This is outrageous! The two vulcans were only 70, 000 each."

"I know, I know. 85, 000 is a bit much. But hey, don't you think we deserve the 90, 000 after all the trouble we've gone through?" Lucy continues. "All you need to do is pay us the 95, 000 and we'll even consider ignoring the fact that you were sleeping instead of doing your job-" She pauses to pick up a slip of paper scattered by the wind. "-responding to urgent requests for help like this one."

"Hm. This is pretty old, it's from months ago. Something about...forest vulcans..?" Crystal reads off the paper that Lucy is holding.

The mayor snatches the paper from Lucy and says quickly. "Alright, alright. I'll give you your money, no need to go around spreading rumors, right?" He laughs nervously as he reaches under the desk for a small stack of bundled up jewels. "There you go! All 100,000 for the third monkey."

"Thanks, we'll be on our way now!" Lucy says excitedly, plucking the money from his hands and ushering everyone out the door.

"Dang Luce, you can _negotiate_!" Beq exclaims, patting Lucy on the back as they meet up with the rest of the team members who were waiting outside the building.

"It's your first quest, you deserve at least this much. I can't believe you were able to learn so much in so little time." She says, handing them the money.

"I think you deserve some too, after all, without you, we couldn't have gotten this much." Crystal says, dividing a portion of the bundle and handing 10, 000 to Lucy, after all, she did negotiate 30, 000 extra for them once you took away the 70, 000 payment for the mama vulcan.

"For me? Thank you!"

The walk was silent for awhile as they headed back to the station.

"..Say.. Where's Happy?" Beq says, causing everyone to stop.

* * *

"Ow! Ow! Ow! Lucy, stop that!" Happy was flying away from Lucy as the rest of the group watched. "All I did was order some fish! And it's your fault for leaving me behind."

"Some?! Your order came to a total of 30, 000 Jewels!" Lucy shouted at the exceed.

"U-um...We shouldn't have left Happy behind so we don't mind paying…" Beq offers as she watches Lucy chase Happy.

"The only problem is...We only have 20, 000 jewels on us right now because we deposited the 210, 000 in the bank since we don't have bags yet…" Crystal continues, taking out a small bundle of jewels from her skirt's pocket.

Erza had helped them set up an account earlier, seeing as Beq and Crystal didn't have any bags to put the money in. Of course, she wasn't concerned about thieves. _Who would even _try_ stealing while Erza was here?_

Lucy sighs, taking out her own 10, 000. "Can't be helped, then. It's not like these two carry anything around with them." She says, looking at Natsu and Happy.

"Natsu, do you always make others pay for you?" Gray says, looking at the pink haired salamander with a smirk. "You're so irresponsible."

"Shut up, stripper!"

"You wanna go, firefreak?!"

"I'll take you on, popsicle!"

"Boys." Erza says sternly, interrupting the two. "This is not the time for fighting."

"Yes ma'am!" They say in unison.

Erza then turns to Natsu and Happy. "And you two, shouldn't you thank them for offering to pay for you?"

"But I didn't even do any-"

"You're responsible for Happy, aren't you?"

"Thank you very much." Natsu and Happy say, begrudgingly.

* * *

"Thank you for offering but I am in no need of money at the moment." Erza says, kindly refusing.

"B-But you helped us buy our armor and you even paid the fee for depositing our reward in the bank!" Beq says, holding out the bundles of Jewels.

Erza, Beq, and Crystal were standing outside a bank in Magnolia. The rest of the group had gone to their respective homes while Gray went back to the guild to report the job's completion.

"It's the thought that counts, and that's enough for me."

"I-It would make us feel better if w-we were allowed to pay you back." Crystal suggests.

Erza thinks for a moment before her eyes light up with an idea.

"Well, while money holds no interest for me...There is something that I would like to see."

"Really? What is it?" The girls' expressions light up at the thought.

"You two seem to have a potential for learning magic. You were able to pick up a few things in a short time. How about after a little more training, we go out on a mission a little further out?" Erza asks.

"Sure, it sounds like fun." Beq smiles tiredly. "It's getting late out." Beq yawns, looking up at the sky.

The sun was setting and only a few people were still milling about. The sky had an orange glow to it and a few stars were seen.

"Would you like me to accompany you on your walk back to Natsu's house?" Erza says, also noticing the sky darkening.

"Thank you, but we'll be fine." Beq answers. "We'll see you tomorrow, thank you again for helping us." She says as she and Crystal walk off, Crystal uttering a shy "goodnight" as they leave.

* * *

"Finally! Took ya long enough to get back!" Natsu says as the girls walk through the door.

"I kind of figured you would be asleep by now." Crystal says, flopping onto the couch near the window.

"Hahaha, well I was kinda hoping you could make some dinner 'cause I'm starving!" Natsu laughs a little.

As a response, Crystal's stomach growls, causing Beq to laugh quietly. Crystal had actually been running around while Beq just used the wind to propel her everywhere.

Crystal sighs and gets up from the couch again. "Well, not like this is anything new. We've been in charge of the chores for the past few weeks."

"L-let's see i-if there's anything in the fridge?" Beq says, following Crystal to the kitchen.

Crystal pauses beside the fridge, contemplating whether or not to open it.

"This would be way easier if he had some sort of garden, or at least seeds!" She mutters. She had thought about starting an organic garden so they could save some money by using her life manipulation magic to grow food.

"So, what are we having tonight?" Beq asks her friend, opening the fridge for her.

"Well...Happy ate all the fish we bought, but we still have the tortillas, lettuce, pars-...cilantro, tomatoes, peppers, onion, garlic, cheese, and meat." Crystal places all the items on the counter and folds her arms, thinking.

"We could make...tacos." Her friend suggests, nudging Crystal in the side.

"Wow, what a coincidence. Someone went shopping for the exact ingredients we need for tacos."

"What a magical coincidence."

The two set to work preparing their dinner, all the while Beq had a huge grin on her face.

"What's this?" Happy asks, looking at the set-up on the table.

The girls had prepared different plates with tortillas, cleaned and cut ingredients, and the sauce.

"We're going to make tacos! You can choose what you want to put in yours and wrap it up yourself." Crystal answers, sitting down and passing out empty plates.

"Y-You can add lettuce, meat, cheese, and salsa." Beq adds, putting together her taco.

"Lettuce start eating." Crystal says casually, causing Beq to nearly choke on her taco.

* * *

A/N: Ch. 3

*For pictures of their outfits, go to

dork-strudel . tumblr post/77567828652

*The song is Bad Apple

*Chumhandles. In the messaging client called 'Pesterchum' the usernames or nicknames are called 'Chumhandles'

Crystal: Sorry this chapter took so long! Responsibility came knocking and I pretended I wasn't home.

Lunariis: what an awful friend. [ps, I wanted to write 24/7 but crystals just nOOO. terrible friend.]

Crystal: See, I actually have a life. (COUGH)

Lunariis: I don't.

Crystal: In all cereal-ness though, I slacked off a lot. :D

Lunariis: She did. I take no responsibility for the lateness of this chapter it was all Crystals fault.

Crystal: This has actually been done for a few weeks whoops.

Lunariis: We were just too lazy to post it ahahhahaha... sorry.

_(Lunariis: ps, I wanted to take out the phone bit, but I just couldnt sacrifice the or-chest-ra pun, __it's still funny to me.)_


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4: Look Out For The Sads And Other Sharp Objects

The house was silent, except for Natsu's snoring and the sound of the nocturnal creatures outside.

Crystal lay sleeping quietly on a couch across the room from Beq while Happy was resting on Natsu's face. Beq, however, remained awake, heavy thoughts weighing down on her. She lay there with her eyes open, staring into the darkness while her mind drifted. Eventually, she sighed and got up to get a fresh of breath air, walking out the front door.

It was calming, outside. A full moon was hanging in the night sky and stars shone down on her. She walked along a little path, not straying too far from the house. The grass was slightly damp and there was an evening chill in the air, but that didn't bother her...she had other things on her mind. Clutching the pink pyjamas Lucy gave her, Beq sat down on the grass, hugging her knees and resting her chin on her arms.

"...Something wrong?" A kind voice asks.

Out of the corner of her eye, Beq sees Natsu sitting down beside her, close enough so that their arms are touching. The warmth is a nice change from the evening chill.

"Just…feeling sick."

"You must be, if you're speaking normally." Natsu jokes, noticing how her usual stutter around him is absent.

"Are you really alright, though?" He places a hand on her forehead again, checking her temperature.

The wind picks up, as usual.

"Homesick! I meant homesick…" She gives a small laugh at his usual dense response, though it fades away almost as quickly as it came.

Natsu takes his hand away but keeps his gaze on her.

"But I thought you couldn't wait to leave that place, you said you felt trapped there."

"...That's not the home I meant." She murmurs it so that it's almost inaudible, half the words no more than air, for she knew that he wasn't supposed to know, but she wanted to tell him so badly.

So instead, she gets up and brushes the damp grass off her clothes, a small smile now on her face.

"I'm fine, really. You're right, that place wasn't the best. I guess a home is still a home, though." Beq says, turning to look at Natsu. "Thank you for your concern." She gives him a genuine smile this time, then turns to head back to the house.

"Crystal and I will be waking up early for more training, so I guess I should get some sleep, now."

"Are you sure you're okay?" Natsu says, catching up with her and walking beside her.

"I'm fine now, because you came to talk to me." Beq blurts out before realizing what she just said. She hurries into the house ahead of Natsu immediately after saying that, her face reddening. _Oh my gosh, this is all because I'm tired_.

Happy yawns and blinks his eyes sleepily as Natsu climbs back into the hammock.

"Where'd you go? Your face looks strange."

"Nowhere, really. Now get back to your own hammock!" Natsu tosses Happy into a smaller hammock beside his and goes back to sleep.

* * *

"Sooo…I heard you put the moves on Mr. Salamander last night." Crystal giggles as she whispers to Beq. She had gone out a bit earlier and returned with all-purpose flour, baking soda, butter, eggs, milk, and honey for pancakes.

They had started a fire in the backyard to make breakfast, though they were trying to be quiet because Natsu and Happy were still sleeping inside the house. It was still early, after all, the sun was just rising in the orange-blue sky.

_Whack. Thump._

"Ow! Quit it! I was just joking, gosh. You did come back with a red face, after all, and Natsu looked weirded out too." Crystal whisper-shouts, holding a wooden spatula up in defense from her friend's attacks.

"You're always making jokes like that, seriously, this is what I'm stuck with." Beq sighs, crossing her arms. "Wait...did you say he looked weirded out?" She looks up with interest, and a bit of concern.

Crystal flips the finished pancakes onto the pile on the plate and pours two more circles of pancake batter onto the buttered frying pan, rolling up the sleeves of her light blue pyjamas as she answers.

"I don't know...It could have been the dark playing tricks on me. I wasn't fully awake, anyways. If your face hadn't looked so funny I might have stabbed you for sneaking in during the night!" She laughs, half-jokingly.

"It's nice to know I escaped a fatal injury because of my embarrassing moment." Beq shoots a look at Crystal. "Wait, why were you going to stab me, anyways?" She asks, incredulously.

"In all fairness, you could have been a burglar!" Her friend replies, flipping the pancakes. "I told you, I wasn't actually awake." She says sheepishly. She always slept with her sword under the couch because of her paranoia of someone, or some_thing_, coming in through the window near the couch.

Crystal shoves the plate of pancakes into Beq's arms while she flips the rest of the pancakes onto the pile and picks up the cooking equipment.

"Oh yeah, just stab anyone who comes in through the front door noisily in the middle of the night."

"Well, duh. Better them than me!"

Beq just lets out another sigh at Crystal's logic, no longer sure whether she's still joking or not. She kicks some dirt on the fire before following Crystal back to the house.

"Wait, why all the pancakes?" Beq questions her friend while raising an eyebrow. Crystal holds the door open for her as Beq walks back into the house and sets the plate on the table.

"Two pancakes each for Happy, you, and I, then six for Natsu." She answers while getting out plates and utensils and setting up the table. She snatches the jar of honey from Beq and pours a few spoonfuls onto her own pancakes.

"Hey!" Beq hisses, demanding the jar back.

"Well, _excuse_ you. I didn't see you help with the cooking." Crystal answers while handing Beq the honey and starting on her own pancakes.

"I'm helping you taste-test them."

"Do I smell food?" Natsu looks around, sitting up in his hammock.

"You do indeed." Crystal says, watching him sit down next to Beq with a smirk.

"Hey, these are good!" His words muffled by the pancakes in his mouth.

"Thanks, I made them all by myself." Beq answers, smiling to her neighbour.

"What did you say?" Crystal looks up from her pancakes, threateningly.

"Crystal did all the work and I helped taste-test them." Beq says quickly, returning to eating.

"Good, because I poisoned two pancakes and I forgot which ones."

"What." Beq and Natsu immediately stop eating.

* * *

"Oh, get over it. It was just a joke!" Crystal giggles, recalling what happened earlier.

"Did you see the look on Natsu's face when Happy said his pancakes tasted different?" She laughs again.

"I can't believe you put fish in his pancakes."

"Well, he does like fish." Crystal pauses. "Wonder why Natsu didn't smell it, though."

"Probably because you put it in a pancake, so that covered some of the smell, and he was probably hella tired." Beq mutters.

"What was that?" Crystal looks at Beq.

"You're an idiot." Beq says, louder.

"Rude much?"

"You ruined my breakfast. Thats much worse."

"Oh, come on, it wasn't that bad."

"Natsu dove across the table and ruined all the pancakes."

"I told you I made extras but nobody wanted them."

"We don't trust you anymore."

"You mean you don't trust me until dinner time because you're too lazy to cook."

"No, you're banned from the kitchen."

"Wha-"

"_Banned_." Beq says sternly, opening the door to the guild. _For a week at least because I'm going to have to do all the cooking by myself and that isn't fun._

"Geez, it was just a prank. In fact, I'm insulted that you guys thought I would actually poison the food." Crystal mutters. _Though it is nice not to have to cook for a while._

"A strange girl comes into your home and cooks for you. She says the food is poisoned." Beq looks at her friend.

"Accompanied by an even stranger noodle girl who takes midnight walks alone in the wilderness."

"It was peaceful okay." Beq lightly hits Crystal on her head.

"Whatever. I've been cooking for the past two weeks, anyways. So this will be a nice break for me." Crystal grins, hitting Beq back.

"I will legit poison your food."

"And then we'll both be banned from the kitchen. Do you really want to eat Natsu's 'cooking'?" Her friend shudders at the thought.

"Whatever." Beq rolls her eyes.

"So from what I've gathered from your conversation, Crystal has been doing the cooking alone for the time that you've lived at Natsu's house and she pretended to poison your food?" Erza says, appearing behind them in the entrance to the guild.

"Yeah, she was cooking because _I_ can't and she _betrayed_ our trust." Beq says, grumpily.

"All I did was give Happy some fish!" Crystal throws up her arms in exasperation.

"You said you poisoned some of the pancakes and forgot which ones, then Happy said his tasted different, after that Natsu dove across the table to stop him from eating them and ruined all the pancakes."

"There were extras."

"On the table, then after that, they were on the floor."

"And on Natsu, Happy, and oh right, the rest of us."

"Yeah and it was your fault for pretending to-"

"Alright, that's enough." Erza says, crossing her arms. "I'll talk to Crystal while training her…"

_Hah_. Beq looks at her friend with a small smirk.

"And I'll have Mirajane teach you how to cook so you don't make your friend do everything, next time." Erza finishes.

_Hah!_ Crystal looks at Beq with an equal smirk.

_Dude, that's hardly a punishment._ Beq rolls her eyes._ I can deal with this._

"She doesn't have much patience for failure, though. I suggest you learn quickly." Erza comments.

"Yeah, no, goodbye." Beq turns to walk back out of the guild. "I can just make french toast for the rest of our lives, that I can do. Breakfast, lunch, and dinner. All french toast. Forever."

Erza places a hand on Beq's shoulder to stop her from leaving and turns her back around to walk to where Mira is, at the bar.

"I'd advise you start by showing up early. She seems to be a bit less lenient around this time because of a contest in a magazine." Erza then grabs Crystal and starts dragging her out the door for their usual training routine.

_Beq. Help. Please. It's scary. She said that after seeing us fight the vulcans, she would make the training harder. Help. I WANT TO LIVE._

_Hahhahahahahahaha. Good luck, pancake poisoner._ Beq mentally laughs.

_You're going to poison yourself because you just banned the only person who knows how to cook from the kitchen!_ Crystal glares at Beq.

_I can cook. Kind of. Have fun eating french toast for the rest of your lives._

"Hello, Beq! I heard that you wanted to learn how to cook. This is good timing, I've just been entered into a contest to see who's a better teacher." Mirajane smiles, putting down a magazine.

"I thought we were going to train…" Beq sweats nervously.

"Consider it a part of your training!"

"But-"

"This will help both of us! Erza asked me to teach you how to cook and I need to win this contest, and after we're done, you'll be a great cook!". She smiles, a glint in her eyes. "Shall we get started?"

* * *

"Well, today was pure hell." Crystal sighs, laying on the couch.

"It sure was." Beq agrees.

"So, what's for dinner, _chef-in-training_?" Crystal smirks, emphasizing her relaxed pose on the couch.

"Nothing, we are going to starve to death." Beq laughs, sitting up.

"Oh, you're back!" Natsu walks in through the back door with a bag. "What's for dinner?" He sets the bag on the kitchen table and a few apples roll out.

"...I thought the trees weren't ready to grow apples, yet?" Crystal glances at the bag, remembering when Natsu jumped down from a bare apple tree in the backyard.

"Yeah, the trees have been there for a long time but nothing ever grew on them." Natsu answers, taking a bite out of a juicy, red apple.

"Then how-" Crystal begins, puzzled.

"Happy's been carrying you to the trees in your sleep. We asked Levy for some magic items to drug you so that you wouldn't wake up."

"..." Crystal stares at them for a moment, her expression frozen in place.

"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA, IT WORKED! See, I told you it would work!" Natsu laughs.

"Erza was the one who came up with it though." Happy says, giggling a bit.

"_Revenge_!" Beq laughs out.

Everyone laughs about it, commenting on her shocked expression until soft sobs draw their attention back to Crystal, whose head is down. A few teardrops fall onto her hands clutched together.

"I-I guess I deserved it...but you didn't have to go so far…I-this isn't the first time that someone's deceived me…"

"Wha- Hey- Crystal w-we were just kidding!" Natsu panics, seeing their raven haired friend's tears.

"Yeah! We didn't mean to upset you!" Happy says, trying to comfort her.

"Crystal, you never told me about anyone bullyi- Yeah...You _never_ told me about anyone bullying you." Beq realizes, tilting her friend's smiling face up.

"She was faking it." Beq sighs.

"Pfffffft!" Crystal wipes her fake tears off her grinning face. "As if I'd let them make fun of me. They sure tried, though."

"Yeah-Wait- _Who_?!"

"Oh, just your usual female dogs with their parents spoiling them into thinking they can act however they want." Crystal says, waving it off.

"Now that I think about it...where did you guys get the money to buy the apples..?" She adds, turning to Natsu and Happy.

"We have a bit of our own money too ya know." Natsu says, matter-of-factly. His stomach growls again as he says this.

"By the way, if we ever go back home, _I'm going bitch hunting_." Beq whispers to Crystal. "I guess I should get started now…" Beq heads towards the kitchen before stopping and turning towards Crystal. "Aren't you going to he-"

"I'm _banned_, remember?" Crystal says, stretching out on the couch and putting her arms behind her head. "Besides, I've been doing all the cooking for the last two weeks."

"...I was gonna ask 'aren't you gonna ask what I'm making?'" _Nice save, me._

"Weren't you going to make french toast for the rest of our lives?"

"No, I'm making spaghetti."

"Don't burn it!"

"I won't." Beq calls back, stepping into the kitchen. "Set the table." She orders her friend.

"Do I have to do _everything_ around here…?" Crystal mutters, jokingly. She follows Beq into the kitchen and grabs some plates, utensils, cups, and a pitcher, then walks back out.

After a certain amount of time, Beq steps out of the kitchen, carrying the plate of spaghetti with her.

"Bon appétit!" She says, placing the plate in the middle of the table and serving it. As she sits down, she notices that there are glasses of orange liquid beside their plates.

"Where'd the orange juice come from?" She asks, taking a sip.

"Oh, I grew a tree outside the window because I was bored."

Beq pretends to choke as she stares wide-eyed at Crystal. "You didn't poison it, did you?" She laughs.

"Well, forgive me for forgetting which glass I did poison."

Beq stops for a moment before looking to Natsu.

"She's just kidding." He laughs. "We watched her the whole time." He glances at Crystal, jokingly.

Beq smirks before quickly throwing her hands up to her mouth as she bends forward, her body racking with coughs. She limps to the side and falls off her chair, a loud thump echoing through the house.

"Oh no, I am dying. The poison is spreading through my body, soon I will rot away. Crystal.. I want you to know...That I hate you.." She says, her voice dripping with sarcasm.

"I hate you, too." Crystal replies, not even sharing a glance at her 'dying' friend.

"Natsu.. after I die, you're in charge of remembering me... don't let Crystal help, she'll just screw it up.."

"Ouch. After all I've done for you!" Crystal says with heavy exaggeration, not even looking in Beq's direction.

The room was silent for a moment, then the sound of Happy's muffled laughter filled the room before he burst into laughter, Natsu soon following. Crystal and Beq look at each other before laughing as well.

The rest of the meal continued in idle chatter and the moon was beginning to set as they prepared for the night.

* * *

_ [Time skip, next day.]_

* * *

"So I was thinking we should look for the book." Beq turned to her friend as they sat together in the park.

"Why? You wanna go back?" Crystal asked, surprised.

"No, but, someone else might go to _our_ world." Beq suggested. "Besides, it might have some other interesting stuff in it."

"Yeah, I guess." Crystal agreed, contemplating the thought.

They sat in silence for a while before Beq spoke up again.

"Well, we should probably head back to the guild. Erza said she had a job for us, right?"

"Yeah. Apparently we're going to investigate a case with dead things surrounding the area." Crystal shudders.

"Dead things, huh. Sounds like a job for you."

"Beware my witchiness! I heal my enemies to life! They will be so thankful that they might kill us a tad bit faster!"

Beq rolls her eyes, standing up and walking back towards the guild, leaving her friend behind, not bothering to check if she's following.

Moments later, her friend's excited yell draws nearer and as Beq turns to see what her friend is doing, a gush of wind rushes past her and her friend flies through the air in the direction of the guild.

"See you at the guu_uuiiiillld_!" Her friend's words draw out as she soars through the air.

"_CRYSTAL_!?" Beq yelps, watching her friend in the distance.

* * *

"So how did that tree catapult work out for you?" Beq sighs as she watches Erza bandage the scrape on Crystal's right leg.

"I landed on Reedus." Crystal chuckles lightly. "At least it's not anything serious! Besides, it'll heal once I recover my magic from growing the tree." Crystal grins, carefree.

"What if you landed on something sharp, idiot." Beq asks.

"Everything's always new and repaired here because of Natsu fighting with everyone anyways." Crystal shrugs.

"Whatever. You shouldn't be so reckless, you could get really hurt."

"Gee, when did we switch places?"

"When you acted like a dumbass." Beq says quietly, putting her hand on her temple. "Man, when it comes to stupid shit, you sure take the cake."

"Well, it worked out in the end anyways." Crystal says, looking up at her friend. "Anyway, let's get going. We have a mission to do!"

"Right." Beq says, following her friend out the door and towards a train station. "So, where is this job?"

"Apparently it's in a small village in the middle of a forest. It's called Aramore." Crystal says, slipping the job flier out of her pocket.

"Why is every place that we have gone to for a job so far; a 'small village'?" Beq wonders out loud.

"Does it really matter?"

"..No."

"This is our second mission! Be a little more excited." Crystal says, nudging her friend in the side as the train station comes into view.

"It's a gardening job for god's sake. The job flier just says something about dead plants!" Beq replies, looking bored.

"At least we get to go by ourselves this time." Crystal offers.

"Because nothing's going to happen…"

"Oh, suck it up. You got to do_ your_ windy thing last time." Crystal laughs as she heads to purchase their tickets.

* * *

"Man.. This town is_ really_ creepy." Beq says, looking around the dark town. Few people were outside and the grass and trees around the area were dying or dead, the people looked ill and those who weren't, looked like they were doing something shady.

"Yeah.." Crystal agrees, knocking on the client's door.

If you listened closely, you could hear the sounds of animals somewhere in the distance. Perhaps they were raising them?

"Coming." A deep, smooth voice answers from inside. "Yes?" a tall, bald man answers the door, his clothing dark and hooded.

"We're mages from Fairy Tail. We're here for the job." Crystal says, showing him the guild symbol on her hand, Beq lifting her hair slightly to show hers.

"Ah, yes. Please, do come in." He says, stepping to the side. "How about a drink? You must be thirsty." He continues, with a smile far too wide.

"N-No thank you…We have to leave soon. To get started on the job.. that is.." Beq says, nudging Crystal to head inside before her.

_This guy is creepy._ Crystal glances behind her at Beq with one eyebrow raised as she walks a few steps inside. Beq quickly follows her friend into the hall and the man shuts the door immediately behind them. The sound causes Crystal and Beq to jump a bit, slightly on edge because of their gloomy surroundings.

The inside of the house was dimly lit by a fireplace in a room to the right of the hall. A few low-burning candles were placed here and there, not that it helped much with the lighting. The walls and floor were wood and there were stuffed animal heads hanging on the walls.

"Please, make yourself at home." The man says, leading them into the living room with the fireplace. He sits on a wooden chair beside the fire, opposite to two identical ones. The floorboards creak as the girls follow him into the room.

"Pardon me for the late introduction. My name is Sigmark." He gestures for them to sit and offers another wide-stretched smile.

"H-Hello, Sig...mark?" _That sounds...Awfully familiar.._ At a nod of confirmation from the man, Beq continues. "I'm Beq and this is Crystal." She says, looking to her friend.

"Hello." Crystal offers, timidly. "Now, what are the details of the job?" She adds, getting straight to business. She was slightly unnerved and kept glancing uncomfortably at the animal heads on the wall.

"Well, as I noted in the job flier, the forest around our town has been growing weaker and weaker lately. The plants are dying and it is becoming exceedingly difficult to find fresh fruits and farm vegetables." There is a pregnant pause as the man sighs and shakes his head. "I fear for my fellow townspeople, for many of us are going hungry."

"I see. That's unfortunate. What can we do to help?" Beq asks.

"Would you like us to heal the plants for you?" Crystal offers.

"That would be very kind of you, however, maybe you can leave that task for later. First, I would like you to investigate the cause of the dying area. We have our own suspicions but..." Sigmark stops again, looking from side to side and lowering his voice. "Have you heard the story of Zeref?"

"Zeref? You mean like, _The Dark Wizard_?" Beq murmurs, surprised.

"Yes! Exactly him! The all powerful evil mage. The creator of demons. The Lord of Death! It is said that death surrounds him wherever he goes and these dying plants must be a sure sign of him!" Interest sparks in his eyes as he goes on about Zeref until he stops and quickly composes himself.

"You have brought the life mage with you, as requested?" Sigmark continues, seemingly indifferent.

"Yes, that would be me." Crystal answers, a bit puzzled as to his obvious change in behaviour earlier.

"Excellent!" He says, his dark eyes searching Crystal's expression. After a few seconds, he seems satisfied and rises from the chair. "Then I shall keep you no longer. I wish you luck on finding the cause of all this misfortune." He ushers them out of the house and bids them a final greeting before shutting the door once more.

"Well...He certainly seems…" Crystal begins, trying to think of the right word.

"...Special?" Beq offers.

"Yup...I wonder why he got so worked up over Zeref." Crystal says, heading towards the forest that Sigma had pointed them in.

"Let's just get this over with and hop on the Nope train to Fuck-that-ville." Beq sighs, looking around at the somber town.

* * *

Back in the house, Sigmark addresses another man dressed in similar hooded clothing, sitting in the chair beside him.

"Foolish mages, Of course we'd never let them get in the way of our great lord, Zeref!" The man laughs maniacally.

"The preparations are complete. Now, we wait for them to venture deep enough into the forest where no one will be able to hear them for miles." Sigmark replies.

* * *

"Yooo... This place is fucking creepy.." Beq says, looking around the forest as she and Crystal walk down the path, investigating the dead flora.

"Yeah.. And these plants.. The soil near the ground is loose, like it was recently planted." Crystal notes, looking down as she curses. Her magic was healing the area she walked on, and slowly draining her magic.

"I'm getting a really bad feeling about this, and that Sigmark.. He seems really_ familiar_." Beq pauses. "I don't like this."

"What do you mean by familiar?" Crystal looks curiously at her friend.

"I don't know, his voice, his name, the way he talks. He just seems so familiar, but I don't.." Beq trails off.

"I'm sure it'll come to you. For now, we should focus on this... suspicious mission." Crystal looks around the wilting trees. "Hey what's-"

Her sentence was cut short by a sharp object hurtling towards her, cutting a large gash on her right leg and reopening the wound from earlier, another object hitting her left.

Crystal fell to the ground, screaming in pain. Beq began to run towards her, wind blowing furiously, when a strange growl-like noise filled the air and a knife flew out from the trees and landed in her side. Reeling back in pain she let out a yelp before a figure appeared behind her, covering her mouth and chanting a sleep spell into her ears.

"_Beq_!" Crystal looked on in horror as her friend fell to the ground as the wind stopped dead. Her fury brought about plants that began to wind around but they quickly wilted, she simply did not have enough magic, the forest was draining it all. Their assailant turned towards her, kicking her in the gut and knocking the wind out of her.

The bald man let out another inhuman growl before pulling out a large knife and preparing to run the life mage through.

Before blacking out from the shock and pain, she could have sworn that she had heard someone yell "Stop!", a black blur jumping in front of her.

* * *

A/N: Ch. 4

_Crystal_: Thanks for all the help writing that emotional bit, Lunariis.

_Lunariis_: hahah shit sorry, I'm awful with sad stuff, besides you looked like you were on a roll. I did p well on the attack part at the end though, since you were offline, so now, we're even. In other news, I went back to chapter two and changed our ages to nineteen, as I'm pretty sure the FT's canon ages haven't really been said, I feel Team Natsu is more in the 18-21 range.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5: Life and Death

Natsu and Lucy wandered the creepy village, asking anyone if they had seen two Fairy Tail mages come by earlier, but everyone claimed to have not.

Lucy knocked on another door, hoping to find someone with any clue as to where they went.

"Yes?" Sigmark's smooth voice asked as he answered the door. "How can I help you?"

"H-Hi, I'm Lucy and this is Natsu." She introduces themselves, a tad startled by the man. "We were wondering if you had seen any Fairy Tail wizards lately? We're looking for our friends who came on a job here." Lucy asks.

"No, I'm afraid I haven't." He lies. "Good day." Sigmark says simply, shutting the door in their faces.

"Well, that was rude." Lucy huffed, turning back to Natsu. "No luck here either." She sighed.

"Let's keep moving then-" Natsu pauses, turning towards the forest with his head high in the air. "I can smell them."

"What?"

"This way!" He says, running off into the gloomy woodland, Lucy not far behind him.

As they sprinted into the darkened forest, relying on Natsu's nose as well as the visible path of healing flora, the faint scent of blood found its way to Natsu's nose and moving figures came into view. They ran faster, closing in on the scene.

A dark-haired mage was seen knocking suspicious hooded figures out. The now unconscious figures were dressed in the same clothing as the man who had opened the door earlier. The familiar shapes of two young girls were seen lying on the ground, unconscious. The mage then propped Beq up against a tree, Crystal still in his arms, before he whipped his head around in Natsu and Lucy's direction and his face was shown.

"Zeref?!" Natsu and Lucy yelled in surprise.

"N-Natsu." He says, also stunned, but only for a brief moment. Right after he had realized what was happening, he disappeared along with Crystal, whom he had been holding onto.

"What the hell? Get back here!" Natsu yells, trying to chase after the dark mage, but Lucy held him back.

"Natsu! Calm down! We need to help Beq!" She says, trying to calm him down.

Natsu turns his head and for the first time since their arrival, he takes in the scene around Beq. She had a knife in her side and was losing blood fast, there was a small cut on her neck, hinting at a blade that must have been held there.

A few steps away from Beq was an even larger pool of blood where Crystal had been. Hopefully, her life magic would regenerate in time. However, their focus right now was on Beq.

"Beq!? Can you hear me?" Natsu asks, reaching his arm towards Lucy and tearing a long strip of fabric from her shirt, earning a hiss from the blonde.

There was no response from the pale brunette. Her skin was beginning to take on an unhealthy pallor.

He held the fabric to her wound after prying the knife from her body, but it quickly became soaked and useless. Their only option was to get Beq back to the town as soon as possible. They needed their help, even if they had to force them to cooperate.

Natsu's fists were clenched as he thought this through, noticing the severity of her wound. He gently picked Beq up and began to run back towards town with Lucy following close behind.

* * *

Natsu's fist slams into the wall behind Sigmark, causing cracks to spread throughout the wall at an alarming pace, though they were quickly repaired by a quickly uttered spell by a hooded figure nearby.

"Heal. Her. Now." He growls, emphasizing each word. "Or else, _you'll_ be the ones in need of a hospital."

"I'm afraid we simply cannot do that." Sigmark says sternly. "Everything would have been fine if your friend had not interfered with the death of the life mage." He continues.

"_None_ of us would have allowed her death! Why were you trying to kill her anyways?!" Lucy yells at him.

"She was.. In the way." Sigmark looks at the blonde. "It was a necessary sacrifice."

"For what!?" Natsu yells, his eyes sparked with anger.

"For our Lord, Zeref."

"Oh? Then why the hell was Zeref the one defending them?!"

"What?" Sigmark asks in surprise before quickly recomposing himself. "You're bluffing."

"For such dedicated followers, you can't even recognize your own 'Lord'!" Lucy says bitterly.

"That's enough. Stop spouting lies! We refuse to help you and that fact will not change." Sigmark says, turning to walk away.

As he turns however, an armored glove flips him and sends him flying back towards his house with only the slightest movement on the former's part.

"He won't be waking up anytime soon. We can deal with him later." The scarlet haired mage says, approaching Natsu, Lucy, and Beq who is being supported by Lucy.

A small gasp is heard from behind Erza as a small girl with blue hair steps out from behind her and takes in the sight of Beq's limp figure. Wendy quickly scurries over to Beq and begins healing her.

"The wound didn't hit any vital areas but she's lost too much blood!"

"Is she going to be okay?" Lucy asks worriedly.

"... I.. I don't know.." Wendy says softly.

* * *

Zeref sighs as he looks at the girl laying next to him, he had brought her far away from the scene and patched up her wounds, they weren't all too serious. Other than the loss of blood she should be fine.

_I think._

_She hasn't woken up yet._

_At least she's not dying._

_What if she is dying?_

_Oh no, no, no, no._

_I can't really tell if she's breathing, but if I get closer I could feel her pulse._

_But what if that kills her?_

_What if-_

His internal rambling was cut short when he noticed the girl stirring. Groaning, her eyes flutter open and she sits up, looking around. Her eyes land on Zeref and they widen.

"H-Hello." He says nervously.

"..H-hey." Crystal replies, equally as nervous.

"..So...Uh.." Zeref starts, awkwardly. "How- How are your legs?"

"Um…They should have healed by now…" Crystal begins as she tries to stand, but instead topples over. "...Or not" She mumbles, lying face-down on the ground.

"Are you okay?" He asks quickly, starting to get up but stopping himself, not wanting to accidently kill the girl.

"I-I'm fine! The forest is probably draining my magic." She sighs, getting up into a sitting position and inspecting the green patch around her that refuses to heal as it nears the black haired mage.

"...Where are we?" Crystal asks, looking around at the darkening forest. It had been noon when Beq had arrived with her in the town-_Wait. Beq. Where's Beq?_

"W-Where's my friend!? Is she okay!?" Crystal panics, looking at the dark mage in front of her as she begins to stand again, wincing as she does so and kneeling again.

"I-I left her with some of your friends so she should be fine, but I don't know for sure.." Zeref pauses. "Sorry for uh.. kidnapping you.. by the way.."

"Um...It's okay. And thank you for helping us!"

"Oh... you're welcome.." He says, the words sounding unfamiliar in his mouth.

An awkward silence hung heavy in the air as the two sat in the forest, the sun getting lower and lower each second.

"Hey," Crystal starts, looking at Zeref. "I'm Crystal, by the way."

"..I-I'm..." Zeref stops, wondering if he should tell her. "..Leonard." He lies, terribly.

"Yeah, _right_…" Crystal says sarcastically as she stifles her laughter. She extends her hand, offering it to him with a smile. Zeref looks at her hand, wanting to protest but not wanting his cover to be blown. Shakily, he takes her hand with a weak smile.

"It's nice to meet you...Zeref." She continues.

Zeref felt himself freeze, his smile quickly dropping into a frown. He quickly pulls his hand away and he opens his mouth to speak.

"Y-You know?!" He asks after a moment of stuttering, his voice wavering.

"I-I'm not one of those creepy cult followers, don't worry!" Crystal says quickly, holding up her hands in defense.

"H-How-.. How a-are you not.. dead?"

"Well, I'm kind of a life mage...though my magic's not really working right now." Crystal laughs nervously, gesturing to the wounds on her legs.

"Wait, you're the life mage they wanted to kill?" _I suppose that should have been a little obvious.._ He thinks to himself.

"And I'm not dead, thanks to you." She says with a smile, causing Zeref to flush furiously.

"Though I guess I should head back now…" She adds, looking around. "Um...Which way did we come from?"

Before Zeref could answer, a growling from the bushes interrupted them. At first they thought the guy from earlier was here to finish them off, but when an angry wolf came out they were proven wrong.

"Stay back." Zeref warns her seriously while the snarling wolf approaches.

As it lunges towards them, Zeref throws his hand forward, but nothing happens. The wolf bites down on his hand and Zeref lets out a pained yelp, shaking the creature off and kicking it away.

"Why didn't that work?" Zeref mutters, surprised.

Crystal looks equally surprised until she looks to Zeref and a thought registers.

"Wait, I have an idea!" She says while slowly backing up with Zeref, farther away from the beast.

The wolf recovers quickly from the kick and stalks towards them again. But this time, when it leaps towards them, Crystal dodges to the side opposite from Zeref, putting some distance between them.

"What are you going to do, you're injured!" He says, noticing her difficulty walking with wounds on both legs.

Luckily, the creature chose to attack Zeref instead. Instinctively, he held up his arms and used his magic, a black orb engulfing the area and killing everything inside.

Opening his eyes he looks up, seeing the wolf's body and the lifeless plants even worse off than before. Then, immediately after, he panics and looks around for Crystal, dreading the worst. His eyes landed on the girl sitting a few steps away, the grass around her looking exactly as it had been before the wave.

Letting out a sigh of relief, he stands and walks over to her.

"Sorry...I can't seem to stand on my own for too long." She admits sheepishly, getting up again.

Zeref smiles and helps her stand. "That's alright. Just as long as you're fine."

* * *

They arrive on the edge of town, Zeref supporting Crystal as she walks. They notice a small tent behind some houses. Outside the tent, Natsu, Lucy, and Erza stand. Suddenly, Natsu whips his head to the side in the direction of Zeref and Crystal, having caught Crystal's scent. His expression darkens and he begins to charge towards Zeref with his fist ready.

"Get away from her! You're going to kill her!" He yells, about to punch him.

"Natsu, Stop! He's harmless right now!" Crystal yells back, letting go of Zeref and standing in front of him with her arms outstretched, defending him.

"What the hell are you talking about?!"

"I'll explain in a bit, just back off!" She retorts, staring him in the eyes.

Natsu lowers his fist, though still glaring at the dark mage, he steps to the side a little and lets them pass.

"Is Beq inside?" Crystal asks Erza as the two walk up to the entrance.

"Yes, but she's lost a lot of blood and was wounded pretty bad. Wendy is inside healing her the best she can." Erza explains

"...Do you think she'll be alright?" Crystal asks, softly.

"We're not sure."

Crystal's expression darkens a bit before looking at Zeref again and back to Natsu, who is standing with his arms crossed.

"I guess we should start explaining, then." She pause "It began when we arrived at the town and met Sigmark..."

* * *

"...Then, after his magic worked the second time, we discovered that my magic cancels out his…" Crystal finishes. She is now seated next to Zeref on the ground with everyone else as they watch her tell the story. "And it's also the reason why mine isn't working right now, either."

"So he can't use his magic right now, but that doesn't mean I trust him." Natsu says with a glare.

"Natsu, he saved our lives!" Crystal argues, getting defensive again.

After a bit of grumbling, Natsu sinks back in his chair. "Thanks for saving 'em." He mutters, still glaring.

Crystal smiles and nudges Zeref to speak up as she observes his slightly stunned expression.

"Oh- Uh- I-It's no problem." He stutters.

By now, the sun had set completely and the moon was starting to rise. They waited anxiously outside the tent as they awaited Wendy's verdict. Crystal was sitting with her arms resting on her knees and her head in her hands as Zeref watched, concerned.

Eventually an exhausted looking Wendy exited the tent, causing everyone's attention to turn to her. She looks up at the group, tears streaming down her face.

"I-I'm.. I'm so sorry." She chokes out. "She- She's gone.." Wendy sobs into her hands.

* * *

A/N: Ch.5

_Crystal:_ I actually suck at woo-ing, Zeref just gets flustered really easily.

_Lunariis:_ It's cause he doesn't interact with people so he's really awkward and its cute, crystal has a boyfriend that kills people hahhahah nice and im dead.

_Crystal:_ He's miiineeee allll minneeee *LAUGHS MANIACALLY* All my competition can just go die *badum tss*

_Lunariis:_ I can see you're really choked up about my death asshole.

_Crystal:_ Ain't nobody got time for cryin. Look at my cute-ass buoyfrond

_Lunariis:_ And I'm still dead. Also he's not really your boyfriend.

_Crystal:_*gasp*

_Lunariis:_ Yeah. Sorry if Zeref seems ooc. I kind of thought he doesn't really know how to act around others when like, actually talking to them. Not killing them or being really cryptic. Just talking. Also short chapter, sorry again.


End file.
